Countdown to Christmas: Day 6

Gingerbread - who doesn't do gingerbread for Christmas?  ME! 

Let me give you some background, I don't like gingerbread and never have so it's not surprising that I don't make gingerbread during the holidays, however last year was different.  You see last year I was a Campfire leader for my daughters Campfire group.  I got the bright idea that a good idea would be to make gingerbread houses - after all how hard could it be.  Now I have assembled & decorated houses in the past so I figured how much harder could it be to make the pieces?  For those of you who have made houses and are who are already laughing, let me give you something more to laugh about.....I had to make parts for 10 identical houses.   Since 11 year old girls would be working on these I found a recipe that although edible it baked up very hard so that assembling the houses was easier.  Faux gingerbread that bakes up hard as a rock starts out with dough that is almost impossible to mix even with a commercial mixer (that I have).  I spent two days mixing, cutting and baking the parts (something I vowed to never do again on that scale).  Finally the parts were done and packaged up into 10 individual packages.  The decorations were arranged in containers.  My girlfriend (who has a cake business) agreed to come and help with the royal icing and assembling.  The other two Campfire leaders were in charge of the snack and additional candy decorations. 
The day of our meeting arrived and the assembly started.....

Ready to start the Magic!

Houses assembled and waiting to "set up".  The canned vegetables look
out of place but various canned goods were used to support the walls
until the Royal Icing set up.

We took a snack break while the house structures set up.....and came back and did the decorating.....

Me helping my daughter

The finished houses!

My girlfriend who helped out made this gingerbread tree.

Created by Debbie at Always & Forever Cakes (one
of the blogs I follow)

Now as every parent knows, you cannot let one child do something and not the other, so the next day my youngest daughter (who was 6) created her house (with plenty of help from Mommy).

My youngest with her masterpiece!

Both masterpieces together, which remained on display until after Christmas!

Now, although I vowed to never do these again, my girls had such fun doing them and showing off their creations that Gingerbread Houses have to become one of our traditions......I will however be buying the kits that have the pieces already made and only need assembly and decorations (I am not complete glutton for punishment after all).