Gingerbread Exchange Community

This video by PastelBunBun.com provides instruction on how to make fresh Royal Icing using egg-whites instead of meringue powder.

https://youtu.be/6Mx00AYUqXk


Ingredients:
2 Egg Whites
Half TSP Cream of Tartar
Powdered Sugar

How To Make:
Put egg whites into blender and whip until foamy.
Add half a TSP of cream of tartar.
Add powdered sugar.
Whip everything together on the highest speed of your mixer until everything is the right consistency as what you see in the video (makes shaped peeks)

This video by Wicked Goodies shares a pair of tricks for building stable gingerbread houses, techniques called Sealing & Edging.

https://youtu.be/vLZj6GNIxSs

Sealing
After baking, an easy way to preserve and protect your gingerbread house parts is to ice the back sides of each one. The underside of a baked gingerbread cookie has very porous surface. It’s the weakest part of the cookie. By sealing it off with icing, the gingerbread becomes sturdier and less vulnerable to bending or breaking. I use a small offset spatula to spread royal icing out to the edges on the backside of every piece, then leave them to dry for a couple of days.

I prefer to use chocolate or brown colored royal icing for sealant because it blends in better with the color of gingerbread.

Edging
Once all my parts have been sealed on the back and the sealant has fully dried, I like to edge every piece as well. Edging involves using a sharp serrated knife to bevel the inside edges just enough so that they fit together flush. For instance, two walls that meet at a 90° angle are each beveled at 45° angles so that they meet in a V shape. So if you have four walls, from the top view, they would meet like this. When you edge, you want to shave at the sides very gently with your best serrated knife. I only recommend attempting this method if the parts have been sealed. I also recommend keeping extra gingerbread dough on hand the first few times you try it because you might break a couple of pieces before you get the hang of it.

This technique is what makes tight seams and clean lines in cookie architecture entirely possible.

If you’d like to get my recipes for dough and icing and learn more about how I bake, construct, and decorate gingerbread houses, check out my books. I’ve included their links below.

BOOK #1 LINK: https://www.wickedgoodies.net/gingerbread-house-dough-recipe/
BOOK #2 LINK: https://www.wickedgoodies.net/gingerbread-house-decorating-building/

This video by Oakleaf Cakes Bake Shop provides instructions to roll and cut gingerbread pieces. 

You could buy a gingerbread house kit - or you could make your own from scratch! A fun, holiday craft or Christmas craft project for the whole family with a personal touch. The first step to creating a homemade gingerbread house, once you have your gingerbread dough made, is cutting out the pieces (and some gingerbread men too!).

https://youtu.be/_32H72oQxG8

This video by Yeners Cake Tips - Yeners Way provides instructions to make a very light and dry sugar coral that can be used as a filler or background material for many cake decorating purposes. This recipe is a simple microwaved technique which turns a basic pastillage piece in to dry sugar foam-like coral that increases the original piece of pastillage by 10 times it's volume.

https://youtu.be/mHbjadqkXok


Click the link below for our pastillage recipe
https://www.yenersway.com/recipes/pastillage-recipe/

This video by Yeners Cake Tips - Yeners Way provides instruction on building and decorating a Gingerbread House.

https://youtu.be/UPinIKPIJFA


Full tutorial with downloadable templates available at the following link...
https://www.yenersway.com/tutorials/festive-items/gingerbread-house/