Gingerbread

Gingerbread 2018 was this past weekend and overall it was a pretty amazing success. I mean, sure, we had our share of bickering and a few freak outs but that's par for the course. The kids were amazing this year, so helpful and so invested in their houses.

They turned out great!

And as for the adults, we conquered Gingerbread 2018 with our ridiculous 37 piece gingerbread version of our church.

It turned out so nice, and I think it was worth it but it was a harrowing journey. We are definitely going to take it easy next year! We've gotten a little out of hand and honestly, it becomes a little stressful. Here's a recap of all our years of gingerbreading.

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

As always, we used the same gingerbread recipe. You can substitute butter but margarine works best. When they say the batter will foam up, it absolutely will, so use a good sized pot! This gingerbread smells amazing! (For reference, we made 4 batches of dough for 2 small houses, a moderately sized house and all the pieces of ours.) 

We got back to our amazing royal icing this year. After a few years of meringue powder and pasteurized egg whites, we can safely attest that dried egg white powder is the best. A batch of royal icing is 4 cups powdered sugar, 2 Tablespoons egg white, 1/3 c water and 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar. Whip it all together for 7 minutes and life is good.   

I love our tradition of from-scratch gingerbread houses, it gives me that hygge feeling deep in my heart and even with sugared up kids and stress over whether we've taken on more than we could chew, the joy and love was present.