Gingerbread House by Hansells
Other
Serves: 20+
Ingredients:
125g butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup golden syrup
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon mixed spice
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon Hansells baking soda
1 cup milk
Method:
Place butter, brown sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan large enough to mix all the ingredients. Heat gently until butter melts.
Remove from heat. Sift flour, mixed spice, ground ginger and baking soda into saucepan and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. Add the milk and mix until the mixture is smooth.
Pour into a baking paper bottom lined 9 x 19 centimetre loaf tin. Bake at 180 degrees C for 1 hour or until the gingerbread springs back when lightly touched or an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to cool for 10 minutes before turning on to a cooling rack.
Water Icing*
4 cups icing sugar
about 5 tablespoons boiling water
Hansells Food Colouring
Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add enough boiling water to make a spreadable icing. Place half the icing in another bowl. Colour one half with Hansells Food Colouring for the house and leave the second half white for the roof.
TO ASSEMBLE AND DECORATE
Toothpicks
Sweets
Hansells Pinkalicious Sprinkles
Coconut
Your imagination!
Cut top from the cake. This piece will form the roof.
Cut a V-shaped piece down the centre length of the cake top.
Cut this in half down the apex of the V. This will form the roof.
Use the piece cut to make the V to make a chimney if wished.
Ice the house with coloured icing of your choice. Sprinkle with Hansells Pinkalicious
Place roof on house, securing with toothpicks as necessary.
Attach the chimney to the roof using toothpicks.
Ice roof and chimney if using, with icing.
Decorate house and roof as wished, letting your imagination take you on a fun filled journey. Use icing to secure sweets and other decorations.
Carefully lift the cake onto a tray or cake board. Spread any left-over white icing thinly over the tray or board. Sprinkle with coconut.
* We used royal icing to decorate our gingerbread village. This dries hard and is best when the decorated cake is not being consumed immediately. If you are decorating a cake to be eaten within 24 hours, a simple water icing will suffice. Royal icing can be thinned with water if it dries out too much as you are using it. The consistency of the icing was important when decorating our Christmas Gingerbread Village. If we wanted things to attach quickly, a thicker icing was necessary. Thinner icing tends to spread when decorations are applied to the cake and heavier decorations will slide off until the icing firms as it dries.
Royal Icing (recipe from Hansells Little Book of Baking Basics by Robyn Martin)
3 cups icing sugar
2 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon glycerine
Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Add egg whites to well and beat mixture with a wooden spoon. Add lemon juice and glycerine. Add Hansells food colour and Hansells essence if using. Beat until the icing is smooth, glossy and stiff enough to form peaks. If necessary add another egg white. Use as wished. If using extra icing to decorate a cake the next day, store in a plastic bag or cover the surface of the icing with plastic wrap until ready to use.
