Gingerbread House has been delivered: The Good, Happy & Bad News....

M

marilynfl

Moderator
Edited on Saturday with a note from Mimi after a poster received an error message when they tried to respond:

"AAARGH!! No, it's the dreaded "31 replies" bug. For some reason, at 31 replies, a thread gets a bit mixed up. It's only happened a few times in the history of the forum. Sorry!"

I asked Mimi if it was Canadian National "Speak Like A Pirate Day"?

So for now, just enjoy the photos and don't try to reply. Mimi and Finer Kitchens are hard at work moving us to "an even better boat. Which boat? That Boat?" ...oops, that was from Pirates of the Caribbean.

*************************************

Well gang...your prayers, crossed appendages, and sautéed chicken parts did it. It was pouring as we drove 30 miles to the mall, then it stopped raining while we unloaded GBH onto the trolley, then it started up again.

Could ya'll figure out some lottery numbers for me?

That's the Good News.

The Happy News is that it was delivered UPRIGHT and the Rotary gang were so tickled that they elected to display it on the highest plinth.

Which brings us to the Bad News: now NO ONE will ever see the Welcome mat inside the entryway or the internal decorations, or the entire back of the roof (as she shakes her head, thinking about ALL. THOSE. SEASHELLS.) Viewers may not even see some of the snowmen on the sides.

But YOU WILL!

I have more photos, but since you've lived through this with me, I wanted to share a few before I crash and go to bed.

The only thing missing from the display is a 2" x 9" banner of white fondant with the words:

Calvin and Hobbes
"Snowman House of Horror"
It goes in the space at right, forefront. I added that at the mall and managed to get Royal icing all over me there too.

Enjoy! And thank you for your confidence in me.

PS: I solved Melting Roof GBH Panic #357 by placing little green and red fondant stars (premade by Wilton) under each element. Just enough heat sink so I could still leave the chocolate covering the wire. Took 4 hrs! to fix.

PPS: See if you can spot my homage to Orson Wells.

PPPS: For size perspective, the wooden base is 24"x24". The ice cream cone peaks at 18" high. Each snowman is ~5" tall standing (or laying flat...or swimming...including Decapitated S-Man, but Condemned S-Man, smoking his last cigarette, is only ~4" tall.)

PPPPS: This was my first gingerbread house ever. It will also be my last gingerbread house because they don't allow off-set spatulas in Bellevue.

************************************

Here we have Bare Naked GBH, wearing the "I Give Up, Gravity. You Win" Roof #3. The original design didn't have trees supporting the roof. In front are stand-ins for the Calvin and Hobbes fondant models I wanted to make. And tried to make. (And failed. And tried to make. And failed. And tried to maked. And failed.) On the table in the background, you can see Ice Cream Cone #3, made out of crushed candy, melted then molded. It was always "sticky" so I tried 2 more attempts and finally got one to work using the gingerbread dough in a waffle iron, then shaping it around the foam cone.color = green>

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01719.jpg

...while here we have GBH all gussied up. (Note Calvin and Hobbes are In Absentia.)color = red>

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01761.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01746.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01762.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01763.jpg

My homage to A Christmas Story.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01766.jpg

Larry created The Two-Headed Monster SnowMan and the Severed SnowMan. I made the SnowKid & Gingerbread Sled.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01749.jpg

Lar made this one too...I only had to add the blindfold and the cigarette to get Condemned Snowman at Execution By Snowball.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01751.jpg

I'm pretty sure none of the other GBH bakers were saying to their husbands: "I don't know...do you think this decapitated head looks like it's screaming?"

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01752.jpg

Yet another homage: living near the "Shark Bite Capital of the World."

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01754.jpg

Larry vent pent-up angst molding his Repent Now! Snowmen

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01760.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01753.jpg

Back of the solid White Chocolate Roof: (which no one will see but YOU!)

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01755.jpg

Roof Detail:

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01756.jpg

This 9" porcelain house was my inspiration. If you squint, you can see the Welcome mat in the entryway.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01767.jpg

A 1/4" machine bolt kept the penguin from toppling forward onto his beak:

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/DSC01743.jpg

DISCLAIMER: No animals were harmed in the making of this gingerbread house. The penguin, however, may need to see a proctologist.

 
MarilynFL, What a truly spectacular job. How absolutely beautiful!! Congratulations on a job Well

done. Just love it.

Gay

 
Marilyn, this is the most beautiful GB house I've ever seen. It looks so inviting, like you could

step right in; it has CHARACTER.

You are a marvel! Give yourself a bow and a hug.

Love you, Fla sis, Marsha

 
Fantastic! I know you slaved over it, but it looks seamless.

(And I got the Orson Wells reference.)

 
Oh my, that's INCREDIBLE!!! I want your autograph too!!

Absolutely love the shell roof, and the two-headed snowman! I think you should be the next food network star!

Congratulations on a fantastic job! (I hope there's a huge cash prize waiting for you! If not, just imagine all of us pinning a blue ribbon on your GBH smileys/smile.gif

 
BRAVO!! BRAVO!! ((clapping furiously))... for those who have come late, here is the whole story...

MarilynFL makes her first gingerbread house (aka GBH = gingerbread house)

Sept 30 –

I was conscripted into making a gingerbread house for a fund raiser. I said yes BEFORE I found out it has to stay UPRIGHT on display for 2 MONTHS!

And, yes, I am that panic-stricken that LARGE CAPITAL LETTERS are oozing out of the bubble over my head.

90% of the outside has to be edible and it sits on a base of 24x24" so I can't do a wee small thing!

...oh, and small note here, I've NEVER made one before! EVER!

PS: However, I already have a contingency plan if it falls down: a piece of fondant that looks like plywood with the words "Hurricane Katrina Did This!"

Gingerbread House rules:
1. The house must be made using a specific gingerbread recipe, one that "supposedly hardens" and will not get moldy. All I can say to that is "Ha!"

2. This fund raiser wants "larger" displays, with the minimum base size of 1 foot up to a 3 foot. I doubt the one at Sam's meets that criteria. Only crazy people meet that criteria.

The one currently on display in the mall to promote this event is 5 FOOT x 4 FOOT X 3 FOOT (BASE). See what I mean...crazy.

3. 90% of the exterior must be edible.

4. Structural support can be used, but not seen.

Therefore, if I interpret the law correctly, Your Honor, since my entire roof will be covered with chocolate anyway, I've decided (just an hour ago) to make the roof support out of cardboard, rather than gingerbread. My roof is edible chocolate...while the roof's non-visible support is cardboard.

The house base is visibly gingerbread. Good enough for me.
Oct 1 –

here's what I wrote to one of the sponsers:

I realized I had stepped into Gingerbread Insanity World (right down the highway from “You’re Nutzo Town”) when I actually downloaded a pattern for building a scale model of (dramatic pause here) the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris!

Click on the link for a wooden example of it. Mine would use--of course--the approved gingerbread recipe.

Really, how hard would it be to make 23 flying buttresses out of gingerbread???? I could drill out the Rosetta window using my dremel and add a marzipan Quasimodo hanging off the bell tower for the kiddies.

Once sanity strolled back to town, I decided my real submission would be a 16” candy store on a 24” base. I’m mostly worried about it staying UPRIGHT for 2 months.

But here’s my contingency plan if it collapses: a piece of fondant “plywood” painted with the words: “Hurricane Katrina Did This!”

Sincerely,
Marilyn the Novice


http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=414036280&size=m&context=datetaken
Oct 12 –

Gingerbread House Update: I've finally found my thematic muse....

Yesterday morning, when I lifted the 14" baked section of roof and it started to bend, I knew I was in trouble. As I continued to lift and test the other 6 baked pieces--and they ALL bent, several words that are usually washed out by a mouthful of soap floated over my head.

Bending was not part of the GingerBread equation.
Bending did not follow the First Law of Gingerbread House Construction.
Bending was not good for architectual construction principals, especially construction designated to stay upright for 2 months.

In a panic, I called my Rotary Club contact person looking for advice. Turns out she wasn't making a house....she was making a gift basket. And she wasn't even sure if she would bake any gingerbread men for it.

Yet here I was, constructing--large-scale--something I've never done before, using a strange recipe that supposedly hardenes (ha!) and hoping it held together with Royal icing, yet another recipe I'd never made. What part of "boy, are you a sucker" was I missing?

With panic rising exponentially higher, I called my contact person's contact person. I knew that soft gingerbread was not going to get me to the finish line of this "fundraiser for a good cause" competition. You can't build a house with walls that gently flop down. Soft gingerbread was BAD.

Turns out this person couldn't help me with my problem because she wasn't making a house either! But she did share with me who my fellow bakers would be:

*the head of the culinary division for a local college
*the head of the culinary division of the local community college.
*a bakery owner for 30 years who also teaches cake decorating at Michael's

oh...and
*a former winner of the Food Network Gingerbread competion.

After hanging up the phone and pounding my head on the counter a few times, I simply decided to re-bake the finished 7 pieces and add significantly more dusting flour and longer baking times to the remaining 10 pieces.

And they hardened! Kneeling, I whispered words of thanks to St. Calumet, Patron Saint of Baking Powder. Of course, the roof and wall edges now looked like flashpoints from an arson scene, but hey! they don't bend.

So I called back my competition contact person last night to let her know that Yes! I would be able to deliver a house...one that actually existed in three dimensions!

That's when she said: "I can't wait to see how you decorate using your theme."

Huh?

When I replied that I was content simply to construct an upright house, and wasn't really planning on doing much more than that, her disappointment was actually palpable through the phone line. "You aren't going to leave it that ugly brown, are you?"

I didn't have a theme for my gingerbread house entry. I was a monster.

She gently suggested that I could add some Disney characters or go with our local NASCAR fetish or just use lots of candy. Then she mentioned an entry last year that displayed Fred Flintstone inside his "stone house" sitting in front of a stone TV... that worked!

"Bending Wall Panic" was immediately replaced with "Lack of Theme Panic" like a vacuum that sucks all the air out of your lungs.

Mentally tortured, I twisted and turned in bed last night. I didn't want to use Disney. I'm not a Disney kind of gal. I stood in front of my bookcase full of children's books and looked for inspiration.

At 2:30 a.m. I found it: I'm still using the candy house I displayed before, but the outside yard will be decorated with....ta-da!...

"Calvin and Hobbes" and his Snowman House of Horrors!


Oct 20-

So I've been wondering....is a gingerbread house technically a gingerbread house if it doesn't have a roof?

Roof #2 is thinner, but still bending. I have pulled out all stops by adding a styrofoam wedge underneath Royal icing and pretzel sticks cut on a bevel to push against the angle of the pitch. The styrofoam can't be seen, so I think I'm within the rules.

That's worked great...only now the entire roof is supported on just the 4 corners of the base. Plus I still need to add 3 pounds of white chocolate seashells shingles.

I just know this thing is going to collapse under the weight.

Larry suggested I tent the entire thing with a huge piece of orange fondant and write a notice that the building is being treated for termites.
Oct 15

Problem is two-fold: one, I designed all these weird angles that pull the weight down and out, which any moron who can spell G.R.A.V.I.T.Y would have realized not to do!

And then, most mounting hardware is designed for metal or wood...not gingerbread that crumbles on stress points.

Technically, I'm allowed to use non-edible structural support as long as it is not visible to the eye.

Which brings us to the second problem: I added a light fixture to illuminate the colored windows, which are on every single wall. So I have to minimize any interior support in order not to block the light source. In other words, no cinder block in the middle.

I'm going to try wrapping 18-gauge wire around the bottom and top of the base. Those walls angle outward and I can hide that with icing. I'm also going to wrap the roof, but I'll also need to add some interior braces.

Where's a steel I-beam when you need one.


Oct 22-
Buy NOW! Easy steps on how to be tortured by fundamental principals of gravity…

Thinner and lighter Gingerbread Roof #2 collapsed on Friday evening, possibly because--although it was thinner and lighter--it still had poor self-image issues and felt heavy and thick.

After I tried spackling the pieces together using wood putty and a blow dryer (is anyone else shocked by this?), I considered just sucking on a pastry bag filled with Royal Icing (#70 small leaf tip) until I passed out from insulin shock.

With defeat and deadline looming, I've decided to interpret the contest rules in my own perverted way. I’m allowed to have structural support so long as it is not visible. I figured WHY am I going to all this effort to make a big, heavy gingerbread roof that I’m just going to completely cover anyway? {note: there were many, many, many swear words uttered before reaching that resolution.}

The THIRD new roof is lightweight foam core covered with Coarse Grade 100 sandpaper for the icing to hold on to because of, you know, that G.R.A.V.I.T.Y thingee.

As soon as I finish making 72 white chocolate 3" seashell shingles (only 48 in hexadecimal), I’ll cover faux roof with chocolate Royal icing, then cover that with the seashell shingles. No foam core or sandpaper will be visible.

Ergo, I conform to the specifications.

Q.E.D.

Oct 31-

The LED lights are melting the chocolate roof trim! (AH-OO-GA! AH-OO-GA! (submarine warning signal))

DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!

Oh, and there's a 70% chance of rain tomorrow...the day I have to take it to the mall and expose it to the world at large.

Poor GBH has lived its entire existence in a rarefied A/C humidity-controlled environment--much like the way the Bubble Boy lived, but...you know, this one's covered in Royal icing.

I'm girding my loins and going back in there. Say a prayer, spin a Tibetan prayer wheel, sacrifice a chicken, cross your fingers, or just think good thoughts and send them in a south-easterly direction please.

Nov. 1. – DELIVERY DAY!

Gingerbread House has been delivered: The Good, Happy & Bad News....

Well gang...your prayers, crossed appendages, and sautéed chicken parts did it. It was pouring as we drove 30 miles to the mall, then it stopped raining while we unloaded GBH onto the trolley, then it started up again.

Could ya'll figure out some lottery numbers for me?

That's the Good News.

The Happy News is that it was delivered UPRIGHT and the Rotary gang were so tickled that they elected to display it on the highest plinth.

Which brings us to the Bad News: now NO ONE will ever see the Welcome mat inside the entryway or the internal decorations, or the entire back of the roof (as she shakes her head, thinking about ALL. THOSE. SEASHELLS.) Viewers may not even see some of the snowmen on the sides.

But YOU WILL!

I have more photos, but since you've lived through this with me, I wanted to share a few before I crash and go to bed.

The only thing missing from the display is a 2" x 9" banner of white fondant with the words:

Calvin and Hobbes
"Snowman House of Horror"

It goes in the space at right, forefront. I added that at the mall and managed to get Royal icing all over me there too.

Enjoy! And thank you for your confidence in me.

PS: I solved the melting roof GBH Panic #357 by placing little green and red fondant stars (premade by Wilton) under each element. Just enough heat sink so I could still leave the chocolate covering the wire.
Took. FOUR. Hours. To. Fix.

PPS: See if you can spot my homage to Orson Wells.

PPPS: For size perspective, the wooden base is 24"x24". The ice cream cone peaks at 18" high. Each snowman is ~5" tall standing (or laying flat...or swimming...including Decapitated S-Man, but Condemned S-Man, smoking his last cigarette, is only ~4" tall.)

PPPPS: This was my first gingerbread house ever. It will also be my last gingerbread house because I assume they don't allow off-set spatulas in Bellevue.

 
OMG. You did an absolutely amazing job. It is a true work of art.

This is your first GBH??? Wow, you don't need to ever make another as you hit perfection the first time around.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top