A Natural Gingerbread House
A couple of years ago, I shared how to make a gingerbread house from real, homemade gingerbread. We decorated it classically with hard candies and peppermints and jelly beans. It was a delightful project for Tad, who was three-years-old at the time. My how the time flies! I loved making gingerbread houses with my mom as a child, though we would make ours solely out of cardboard. It was cheaper and easier, for we did not really cook or bake often when I was growing up and the gingerbread house kits you find at the store now did not exist (at least not where we lived). As a homesteader and whole food advocate, I made it my mission several years ago to go the whole mile and make our future gingerbread houses from scratch. It’s surprisingly not that difficult! But this year, I wanted to try something different…
To be honest, I’m not a fan of the classically decorated candy house. Are you the same? I think it is sweet and magical in its own right, but the bright colors of commercial candy are something that I don’t love seeing. It’s not that it’s bad! I just wish they came in softer colors. Still, when I decided it was time to make our house for this year’s Christmas festivities, I found that our candy stash for decorating was depleted. With the coronavirus happening right now and more quarantine restrictions being put up, I did not want to have to run all the way out to Amish country (where we buy our bulk candy) just for one project.
It donned on me that our house had the potential to be just as beautiful and perhaps even more so using what we had around the house. In the days before processed candy was a thing, what did they use to decorate their gingerbread houses with? I haven’t done any research on this myself, but I would assume it might have been dried fruits and nuts and the like because they were so often used during this time of year for multiple things. I had all of that!
I pulled out all of our bulk jars from the pantry and got to work. We used nuts, dried fruits, berries, popcorn, seeds, pretzels, and fresh greens to decorate our house. We actually made two houses. If you follow us on Instagram, you might have seen the first one we made. Tad helped me decorate the entire thing, and he didn’t get bored. I’ve actually been fairly impressed with his attention span this Christmas. He’s helped me shop for gifts for others, wrap presents, bake cookies, decorate the tree, and make a gingerbread house without getting bored or tired one bit! It’s been fun watching him enjoy all of the things we’ve been doing to make our home feel festive. I love it!
Sadly, our first house collapsed. I did not listen to my own recipe. I made the house pieces and tried to construct them in the same day… and well, I paid the price. Tad really decorated the house himself, I simply applied frosting “glue” where he wanted things. It was beautiful, and he was so sad at first when the roof caved in. But then he saw how upset I was and immediately held my hand and said, “It’s okay, mom! It’s okay. We can build another one! It’s just gingerbread.” Ugh. My heart!
Thus, the house pictured was born. And I listened this time! I waited until it was fully hardened before constructing, and I also added a cardboard structure underneath for added support. Tad did not decorate this one, but I included the one photo I got of his house below!
His poor house! We had a good laugh about it a few minutes after the tragedy happened and labeled it a “pinterest fail” - ha!
Lesson learned: wait the full 24 hours after baking before building! You can get my gingerbread house recipe here.
To make a natural gingerbread house of your own, here are my suggestions for things you could use, but the idea is to get creative with what you have!
Nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds work well because their large but not too heavy to be held by the frosting)
Dried Fruits & Berries (cranberries & blueberries have great color!)
Greens (cedar, pine, boxwood, eucalyptus)
Seeds (pumpkin seeds are green and beautiful!)
Popcorn (try getting some without added butter for a creamy white color)
Chocolate chips
Beans (large ones are most noticeable)
Whole Spices (star anise and cinnamon sticks are easiest to use)
What do you think? Do you love the look of a more naturally decorated gingerbread house? We like to display ours near the dining room table so everyone can see it at Christmas dinner!
xoxo Kayla
