Gingerbread House has been delivered: The Good, Happy & Bad News....
- Thread starter marilynfl
- Start date
desertjean
Well-known member
Encore! Encore!
richard-in-cincy
Well-known member
What a great job! LOVE the shark fins!!!
Marilyn, you may have already posted this, but I had a couple questions:
Did you cut pieces and bake, or did you bake sheets and cut pieces afterwards? I know there are two schools of thought on that.
Also, did you post the final recipe for the gingerbread that you got to work?
Amazing job. Thanks for sharing.
Marilyn, you may have already posted this, but I had a couple questions:
Did you cut pieces and bake, or did you bake sheets and cut pieces afterwards? I know there are two schools of thought on that.
Also, did you post the final recipe for the gingerbread that you got to work?
Amazing job. Thanks for sharing.
vicki-in-tucson
Well-known member
Fabulous! A great tribute to Calvin and Hobbes. LOVE the snowmen!
We were up packing and cleaning until 3am and I made my husband stop and look at this. He was very impressed.
Nice Orsen Wells reference.
We were up packing and cleaning until 3am and I made my husband stop and look at this. He was very impressed.
Nice Orsen Wells reference.
G
Guest
Guest
Gingerbread House
OUTSTANDING! I love all the detail, the sharks and swimmer, THE ROOF!!, the decapitated s-man... it is all so perfetly YOU Marilyn! Your sence of humor just shines from this! A job VERY WELL done! Queenie, So Cal
OUTSTANDING! I love all the detail, the sharks and swimmer, THE ROOF!!, the decapitated s-man... it is all so perfetly YOU Marilyn! Your sence of humor just shines from this! A job VERY WELL done! Queenie, So Cal
Thanks everyone! Richard, here's the "official" recipe we had to use. Eva thinks it's insane.
She said the proportions are all wrong. Not knowing any better, I rolled out the dough between parchment paper, laid my cardboard pattern on it and cut out each piece, then pulled away the excess and slid the paper onto my quarter size baking sheets. Some pieces barely fit.
There was hardly any rising or expanding (no rising agents in the dough and not a lot of gluten in the flour.)
A kind "friend of a friend" who has her home-ec classes make GBH each years gave me a great hint:
**Use your knife and cut any opening (doors, windows, etc), but leave the dough in place while it bakes. Then, as soon as the baked dough comes out of the oven, cut out the pieces and remove them. You have to do this IMMEDIATELY. Even chit-chatting on the phone will let the dough harden around the score marks and you won't get it out easily. Done this way, the baked openings end up the exact size that you scored them.
Another good hint:
Use dowel rods to roll the exact same thickness across the dough. I was using my rolling pin spacers and THEY DID NOT DO THE JOB!...at least for big pieces that were 14" long and 10" wide. The dowels, however, kept everything level. I used 1/8" for roof #2 (which ended up going in the garbage anyway), 3/16" for the rest.
Use 1/4" foam core to design and cut your model and the final baked pieces will fit perfectly. I didn't figure this one out until Roof #3. My original model was just thin cardboard and the dough ended up all thick and thin because of the rolling pin spacers. This resulted in 2 days to fit the eight entry way pieces together.
One more thing: We were allowed to use structural support as long as it was not visible AND we were allowed 10% non-food (of course, no one could ever tell me 10% of WHAT? Total weight? Size? Number of protons versus electrons? What??). The competition in Asheville must be 100% food items. Big difference having that flexibility.
If you have any more questions, fire them out. If I haven't failed at it, it hasn't been done.
However, I am now, officially, no longer a GBH virgin. There's something to be said for that.
PS: You can make a GBH with only 6 baked pieces. Mine had 17....like I said....insane.
PPS: Oh, here's another good trick I learned by mistake. I piped out a scroll just to see if the tip was right (since, prior to this, I owned exactly FOUR tips....now I own the gigundous 55 piece set and had no clue what most of them do). It was so much fun that I just kept making strips of scrolls next to each other. Then I stuck my elbow in it.
Then I swore.
Then I moved it out of the way, but found it the next day that it had hardened into....strips of crown molding! All I had to do was trim to fit, slap a little Royal icing on the back and I could place an entire line of perfect scrolls along a roof line without fear of dripping or falling. Worth getting RIE (Royal Icing Elbow) just to save the frustration.
http://www.rotarycharity.org/recipes.htm
She said the proportions are all wrong. Not knowing any better, I rolled out the dough between parchment paper, laid my cardboard pattern on it and cut out each piece, then pulled away the excess and slid the paper onto my quarter size baking sheets. Some pieces barely fit.
There was hardly any rising or expanding (no rising agents in the dough and not a lot of gluten in the flour.)
A kind "friend of a friend" who has her home-ec classes make GBH each years gave me a great hint:
**Use your knife and cut any opening (doors, windows, etc), but leave the dough in place while it bakes. Then, as soon as the baked dough comes out of the oven, cut out the pieces and remove them. You have to do this IMMEDIATELY. Even chit-chatting on the phone will let the dough harden around the score marks and you won't get it out easily. Done this way, the baked openings end up the exact size that you scored them.
Another good hint:
Use dowel rods to roll the exact same thickness across the dough. I was using my rolling pin spacers and THEY DID NOT DO THE JOB!...at least for big pieces that were 14" long and 10" wide. The dowels, however, kept everything level. I used 1/8" for roof #2 (which ended up going in the garbage anyway), 3/16" for the rest.
Use 1/4" foam core to design and cut your model and the final baked pieces will fit perfectly. I didn't figure this one out until Roof #3. My original model was just thin cardboard and the dough ended up all thick and thin because of the rolling pin spacers. This resulted in 2 days to fit the eight entry way pieces together.
One more thing: We were allowed to use structural support as long as it was not visible AND we were allowed 10% non-food (of course, no one could ever tell me 10% of WHAT? Total weight? Size? Number of protons versus electrons? What??). The competition in Asheville must be 100% food items. Big difference having that flexibility.
If you have any more questions, fire them out. If I haven't failed at it, it hasn't been done.
However, I am now, officially, no longer a GBH virgin. There's something to be said for that.
PS: You can make a GBH with only 6 baked pieces. Mine had 17....like I said....insane.
PPS: Oh, here's another good trick I learned by mistake. I piped out a scroll just to see if the tip was right (since, prior to this, I owned exactly FOUR tips....now I own the gigundous 55 piece set and had no clue what most of them do). It was so much fun that I just kept making strips of scrolls next to each other. Then I stuck my elbow in it.
Then I swore.
Then I moved it out of the way, but found it the next day that it had hardened into....strips of crown molding! All I had to do was trim to fit, slap a little Royal icing on the back and I could place an entire line of perfect scrolls along a roof line without fear of dripping or falling. Worth getting RIE (Royal Icing Elbow) just to save the frustration.
http://www.rotarycharity.org/recipes.htm
)The whit you have demonstrated in this is just beyond belief! To say nothing of the skill, patience
and creativity.
I just cannot express how impressed I am.
Is that little snowman with the black headband covering his eyes so he doesn't melt?
Does the other guy ever get away from the sharks, or does he just experience meltdown?
What happens to this now.
and creativity.
I just cannot express how impressed I am.
Is that little snowman with the black headband covering his eyes so he doesn't melt?
Does the other guy ever get away from the sharks, or does he just experience meltdown?
What happens to this now.
Geez, I didn't actually answer your question. I used the contest recipe exactly as
written. I kept to it because if it crashed down, I didn't want it to be because I didn't follow their rule.
After the first batch, I did add more flour to the parchment paper before rolling and baked pieces at least 10 minutes longer than specified. The base was bending, but a second trip to the oven cured that.
However, Roofs #1 AND #2 were baked...then rebaked...then REBAKED AGAIN....and they both still bent. It acted as though it was in a steam bath.
A very quick glance at the other entries showed very light gingerbread while my multi-baked roof had looked almost burnt.
I have no clue if the other bakers adjusted the recipe. Maybe I'll be able to ask them when the display opens.
There was a suggestion in one of the 10,002 Internet posts on Gingerbread houses that recommended baking for 1 hour at a low temperature to dry it out.
written. I kept to it because if it crashed down, I didn't want it to be because I didn't follow their rule.
After the first batch, I did add more flour to the parchment paper before rolling and baked pieces at least 10 minutes longer than specified. The base was bending, but a second trip to the oven cured that.
However, Roofs #1 AND #2 were baked...then rebaked...then REBAKED AGAIN....and they both still bent. It acted as though it was in a steam bath.
A very quick glance at the other entries showed very light gingerbread while my multi-baked roof had looked almost burnt.
I have no clue if the other bakers adjusted the recipe. Maybe I'll be able to ask them when the display opens.
There was a suggestion in one of the 10,002 Internet posts on Gingerbread houses that recommended baking for 1 hour at a low temperature to dry it out.
That's Condemned Snowman...he's blindfolded and up against a tree, smoking
his last cigarette because, in the cartoon, Calvin is getting ready to nail him with a bunch of snowballs.
I thought I would get GBH back in January, but my contact person told me they might be going to another display in Orlando. Why anyone would want used gingerbread houses in January is beyond me.
his last cigarette because, in the cartoon, Calvin is getting ready to nail him with a bunch of snowballs.
I thought I would get GBH back in January, but my contact person told me they might be going to another display in Orlando. Why anyone would want used gingerbread houses in January is beyond me.