"gingerbread house" news and stories

Thanksgiving hasn't even passed, but already people are thinking about building a gingerbread house.

The traditional ginger bread house can be as simple as four walls and a roof stuck together with icing. If you're looking for something more spectacular, check out "The Gingerbread Architect" by Susan Matheson and Lauren Chattman, authors who recreate 12 iconic American homes -- from a Greek Revival antebellum plantation gingerbread house to an urban brownstone. Jennifer Lindner McGlinn gives instructions on a Betsy Ross gingerbread house and a gingerbread church in her book "Gingerbread: Timeless Recipes for Cakes, Cookies, Desserts, Ice Cream and Candy."

Wendy Copley shares her tips for making the gingerbread house shown above on her blog Wendolonia. Get started with KitchenDaily's gingerbread house recipe.

I have never been much of a precision baker. My cookies always turn out slightly lopsided (but charmingly so, right?) and when I make meringue cookies, I can't be bother to run them through a pastry bag, instead just roughly dolloping them on the baking sheets. Because of this sloppiness, I find the exactness of the Gingerbread Eiffel Tower to be jaw-droppingly impressive.

Created by Marilyn of Simmer Til Done, this tower of perfection was baked up to dress the window of a friend's gourmet shop for the holiday season. Thanks for adding this dazzler to the Slashfood Flickr pool, Marilyn.

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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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With all the coverage we here at Slashfood have been giving gingerbread men and gingerbread houses I thought it might be fun to search the web for Guinness World Records involving the favorite holiday flavor.

Without doubt, the most impressive gingerbread record this year is Roger Pelcher's gingerbread house. The house - which was built at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. - stands just shy of 64 feet. Pelcher beat his previous record of 57 feet.

It took him and his team nine days to build the 1,496-square-foot ginger-scented, candy-laden mansion. Given its size and the fact that it includes a gingerbread factory complete with animated elves, I think it's fair to call it a mansion. The gargantuan confection contains 14,250 pounds of gingerbread, 4,750 pounds of icing and more than a ton of candy decorations. Hansel and Gretel eat your heart out.

I'm not sure why people like to make gingerbread creations of outlandish proportions in Minnessota, but they do. From Rochester comes the world's largest gingerbread man. The big guy weighs in at 466 pounds and was baked by the Gingerbread House Bakery. The bakery plans to bring it to the Mall of America to join Pelcher's gingerbread palace.