When I was back in the UK last Christmas I made one of those Christmas gingerbread house kits with my nephews and they loved it. I thought Jason’s might have them, but I checked it out yesterday and they don’t. Are these available anywhere?
I think I have a foolproof set of instructions in one of my BBC Good Food magazines. Very simple to make the cake and icing. The hard part is cutting out the bits afterward and getting them to match up with each other. IF I can find it you’re very welcome to a copy. IF – I have like 8 year’s worth of those mags!
Thanks for the offer. I’ve found instructions about how to make one from scratch already - something I don’t fancy trying in my excuse of a kitchen with my even worse excuse of an oven! What I’m looking for is one of those idiot proof pre-fab kits with the house parts already made (nasty, I know, but it won’t be me that ends up eating it!).
They have/had them in the baking goods shop opposite Taipei European School on WenLin Rd near Jiantan MRT station.
Just back from a Christmas party where the kids were making them.
Still need some patience and the icing that comes with it for ‘gluing’ the pieces together isn’t great - tends to slide. So you have to build in stages.
But they kept the kids amused for a goodly amount of time.
Cheers
Brian
Got a catalogue in the post from RT Mart and they’re meant to have them, they’re NT$99, but I doubt they’re very big.
rt-mart.com.tw/edm.asp?ID=305 it’s on the last page.
Bake your own Ikea! Yegods! That’s FUN?
Have you actually tried that? Just curious. I’ve been thinking of making one, and so I had Googled for instructions. If you make (and preassemble) a cardboard or paper pattern first, disassemble it, then cut the frozen, uncooked dough based on that, I can’t imagine why the parts wouldn’t match up. Is it differential shrinkage or warping that you’re talking about? Or just a need for some 3D spatial IQ?
Uhm, none of you did this as kids?
Damn… 
I got stencils in a cookbook, I guess I can scan them and post them here, but they’re for both a ginger bread house and a ginger bread church and all in Swedish.
I can also post a recipe for gingerbread dough that doesn’t shrink much.
You make the stencils in baking (grease proof) paper, put them on top of the dough, cut out the shapes you need, bake it and the “glue” it all together with burnt (melted) sugar. Gingerbread dough is really easy to make and you can freeze it if you make too much. It’s nice and easy to work with as well, although you’ll need some golden syrup which for some reason costs a bomb here.
No. What’s the point? They remind of that gnarly story about the witch that put the boy in a cage and he stuck chicken bones through the bars so she wouldn’t eat him. Children’s stuff is creepy.
Not heard that one, you sure you’re not mixing up hansel and gretel with some kind of horror movie you snuck up to watch as a kid?
The glue (caramelized sugar) part is pretty nasty though, my silly little sister (not so little any more…) stuck her finger in it once and got a huge blister on her finger as it was so hot… but apart from that, I guess they’re not too hard to make.
None of the recipes or instructions I’ve ever seen called for hot sugar; they all use royal icing, which dries hard after a good while.
Hence why the sugar is better, everyone in Sweden use that and it dries really quick compared to icing.
Then you decorate the gingerbread house with icing, sweets and what not to make it look pretty… M&M’s tend to work quite well…
What do you pipe the hot sugar with?
And you’ll be so proud of you gingerbread house you won’t let anyone eat it. I just want to nibble on the gables.
You don’t…
You melt the sugar in a frying pan and dip the parts in it and then fasten them together…
It’s a bit messy, but makes a really solid seal.
3D spatial awareness and self-control with the booze also helps. Plus, the stuff changes shape after its baked. Plus, don’t wear commando sole boots while making it because when the bowl of icing you drop on the floor hardens you’ll never get it out of the cleats.
You know this by experience or is this from a third party? I don’t trust third party stories… 
Yeah, I forgot about that part.
If there’s still someone looking, you can get them in IKEA as well, NT$120. They also have classes to teach you how to make your own gingerbread house 
Sadly the rest of their christmas stuff is really disappointing…
Red cabbage in a jar anyone?
Seems like Wendel’s, the German Bakery/Restaurant in Tienmu, is also selling DIY-Kits:
somewhere low on that page:
wendels-bakery.com/sections/ … asonal.htm
Gingerbread House 650 DIY Gingerbread Kit 610