A frustrating gingerbread house experience

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Dec 26th 2007 @ 12:52PM

I spent Christmas hanging out with my family, doing some cooking and generally vegging out. It seems that my friend Eric spent the day with his family, stymied by a Wilton Pre-Baked Gingerbread House Kit. He and his three year old nephew started the kit as a way to do something fun together and by the end were ready to toss it in the ground in frustration. Did anyone else try this kit this year? Was it fun for you or did you have as many problems as Eric and his nephew did?

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Filed Under: Cooking With Kids, On the Blogs, New Products
Tags: Christmas, Eric Smith, Gingerbread house, GingerbreadHouse, holidash, holidays, pre-baked, projects with kids

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-25-2008 @7:11PM Chelbi said... yeah i made one and it came out beutiful o complications what so ever.
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12-26-2007 @3:41PM caitlin said... It was probably the three year old. I did two this year - one with friends with school age children, and one with my 3 year old. The one I did with my friends went together perfectly. The roof wouldn't stay on the one I tried to do with my 3 year old, because he kept scooping icing and candy off :P. I finally just attached the roof with straight pins and made another batch of royal icing so we could finish the gingerbread house. It was fun both times, probably because the first had no problems.
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12-26-2007 @5:55PM dksbook said... Never use the frosting that comes with the kits - never. Mix a batch of Royal Icing, and use that. And when working with kids, remember, you can never have too much Royal Icing.

Joy of Cooking Royal Icing

http://www.joyofbaking.com/RoyalIcing.html
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12-28-2007 @2:34AM shakaZOLO said... We bought a $16 kit at Whole Foods that included only a bag of gingerbread mix and "icing mix" which was just powdered sugar. Talk about disappointing. We had to cut our own shapes......no templates, no decorations. What a waste!
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12-28-2007 @10:04AM mws2008 said... We did one with 5 kids ranging from 5 - 12. Everyone participated and all had great fun. Has anyone sprayed it with lacquer so it will keep?
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12-31-2007 @12:52PM amy said... I'm thinking the problem was going with a kit. My mom had a cast iron mold that we used to bake our pieces, and royal icing held the thing together. Never had any problems at all. Royal icing might stick better than superglue.
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12-31-2007 @11:50PM Donovanad said... I made one with my younger sister, and we put it together with a hot glue gun, making it inedible, but really, they are mainly for looking at (and it was a year old).
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1-02-2008 @5:08PM Kelly said... We've used both kits and homemade. The best and easiest kit was probably Trader Joe's, but you have to get it early. We've used the one sold at Costco the last two years and they have been great, right down to the Royal Icing. No problems, however, I ALWAYS assemble them for the kids and let them decorate once the icing sets up. With one of the kits (I think it was Wilton) the roof caved in on my son, he was devastated, until we went and got a bunch of his army men and made the house under attack. Sometimes you just have to improvise.
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