strawberries in paris

This challenge I saved for the end of the month! The reason you see, is that I wanted my two younger cousins to help me decorate it! So the Monday before X-mas I made the dough, Tuesday night I rolled it out and baked it and then Christmas eve it was decorated and constructed! I think it looks amazing!! Love my little cousins Caroline and Sarah- they are such a joy to me.

The dough making and rolling was actually quite easy- probably about 1.5 hours in total. Not bad if you want to be cheap and authentic when Christmas comes around! We went to Wegmans and got allll the christmas candy to decorate with. I think that was my favorite part- picking out the candy!! My not so favorite part was when the pieces of gingerbread started breaking apart which led me to Plan B, which Auntie Catherine so expertly assisted me with. Basically, I built another house out of cardboard and duct tape and then I royal frosted the gingerbread pieces to the cardboard house!  Check out the recipe below, some more pictures and the rest of my posse!

Here are the girls, working away on each of their side walls! We got licorice string, red and green gummy bears, red, green and white sprinkles, holiday peanut m&ms, dark chocolate nonpareils, red and green gumdrops, and jelly belly sours. It was Caroline’s great idea to use the non pareils for shingles!

Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)
from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas http://astore.amazon.com/thedarkit-20/detail/0816634963

1 cup butter, room temperature [226g]
1 cup brown sugar, well packed [220g]
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour [875g]

This is our falling peppermint stick fence.

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.

3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.

4. [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred these to the baking sheet. Any scraps I saved and rerolled at the end.]

5. Preheat the oven to 375′F (190′C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

This was my contribution to the house, a nice sprinkley window and gummy bear decoration!

Royal Icing:

1 large egg white
3 cups (330g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. Pipe on pieces and allow to dry before assembling. If you aren’t using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.

This is Sarah’s side!

Check out the rest of my DB posse here!!