I have never made a gingerbread house. I think once in elementary school I made a gingerbread tree. But that was it. And well, I am an adult with my own money and can put whatever the hell I want in my shopping cart. No cheap house kit for us, we skipped the one with the generic jelly beans in it and went straight for Wonkaland. Screw the house, we were making a cottage. Ready for it to be my Thanksgiving evening project, I carefully laid out the contents and covered my work surface and followed the instructions to read all the way through before starting. Well, good thing. How am I almost 30 and I don't have an electric mixer? Have I just confined myself to hand stirring brownies for the 4 years I have lived alone now? I know we used to have one, but I guess I never replaced it? I don't know, but let me tell you, even 24 hour drug stores are closed at 7pm on Thanksgiving, so the project came to a screeching halt as I was unable to prepare the frosting properly.
Well, now I am the proud owner of a deluxe mixer and can just bake to my hearts content through the holidays. You can bet I will be whipping out cupcakes in a craze now. I have to make my new investment worthwhile. If once every 4 years is the destiny of this appliance, my kids kindergarten cupcakes are going to be stirred with it. It made one hell of a yummy frosting and I slapped it in the little pastry bag I had prepared and readied myself for decoration.
I built the structure of my house, admiring the textures carved into the cookie pieces resembling brick and shingles with little doors and windows pressed in. Ocean's Thirteen in the background, the learning curve of the frosting meant a less pretty and more practical construction, but it was surprisingly more stable than expected with very little effort. It wasn't long before I was pressing forward with dumping the included candies in the tray. I did cheat and buy a bag of sour jelly bellys and ended up being grateful since I used almost the whole bag trimming my little sugary abode. I contemplating the question another friend would also later pose in the obstacle of actually consuming the residence, but I figured that a post-assembly "problem" at the minimum. My hands got stickier and it definitely wasn't looking pretty. I added a front yard with a walkway and put some rose bushes on the side, the landscaping knocking it up a notch and possibly not as embarassing as I was thinking. I ended up not coloring the extra frosting, nor putting a ton of effort into the finishing touches, since it lost its amusement about that time. But all in all, I think it turned out pretty cute and I certainly got my $11 worth of amusement out of it. I certainly am going to get a fair amount of value in munching the various 1/2 pound assortment of decorations that are there for the picking. There is an amazing sense of power in demolishing a tiny little place. But I think for now it will just sit and be cute.
Want to come inside?
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