Although no one in our family actually enjoys eating gingerbread, we
still put together a gingerbread house for decoration purposes every
holiday. It's fun, it's inexpensive, and the whole family can enjoy
building it.
This year close to everyone in my family came home with different
gingerbread house kits. My brother bought some extremely difficult sky
scrapper of a kit, and me and my boyfriend went simple for only $9.99 at
Linen' n Things. We purchased 2 Pre-Baked-Pre-Made Gingerbread House
Kits by Wilton.
With my brothers huge kit, and our 2 smaller kits, we knew that once
we were all done putting together and decorating our kits, we could slap
them on to one base and create a Gingerbread type town.
The Wilton Pre Baked, Pre Made kit came in sections that we had to use
icing to get together. I knew from past experiences with Gingerbread
kits that putting the house together is the hardest part. Usually the
roof slides off or caves in, or a wall ends up falling just as you apply
the final piece.
With time though, I was able to get my house together with ease. I was surprised.
After using the icing to hold the house together, my next steps were
to simply decorate my house, and the cardboard base for scenery.
I started with the roof by adding some thin rows of icing, and adding on some candy.
My options were decent. The kit came with fruit slices, peppermint
swirls, a bag of hard candies that remind me of runts, and a bag of
sweet tarts. The kit also came with a pre-baked gingerbread snowman, and
a gingerbread tree.
After decorating my roof and adding the candy I wanted to it, I worked
on the tree and the snowman. I lined them both up with icing, and added
a few candy drops to add eyes and bulbs to the cookies.
They ended up coming out looking okay. Nothing spectacular seeing how
the candy that was included was sort of cheap, and tacky in color.
After decorating the cookies, I went back to add details on the
gingerbread house. I added a window and a door, and lined them up with
candy. My next plan was to fill the baseboard with some icing and
sprinkle some crystal sprinkles that we had bought separately to the
floor. It was supposed to give it an icy look.
The icing though just couldn't finish the job. This happens every
year. Companies who make these kits never add enough ingredients for the
icing. The house never looks as good as the one on the box, due to the
fact that you lack another bag of icing.
If you look at the photo included you can see mounds of icing on the
roof, and the house. Trust me, there is not enough icing to put nearly
half that much on the roof, unless you plan on making your own
icing...which we weren't planning on doing.
The kit does though come with plenty of decorative candy. You will even have extra candy, so it is okay to let the kids chomp down on a few pieces, no need to blow a hissy fit on them for eating some of the candy.
Overall:
The Wilton Pre Baked, Pre Made Gingerbread house was relatively easy
to put together. However it lacked enough icing to finish the house, and
the surrounding base. Out of all the Gingerbread homes I've put
together in my time though, none of them ever have enough icing, so I
can't point the finger and say Wilton is the only kit with not enough
icing. My brother who bought a XL kit also did not have enough icing to
complete his house the way he wanted it.
My tip for anyone looking to build a pre-made gingerbread house is to
start small. Only use very thin amounts of the icing at first... if you
have any leftover then go back and make it thicker. You're going to need
every last drop.
Although it is not the best looking gingerbread house in the world,
for only $9.99, it's a pretty good bargain. You have fun doing it, and
it's great for family time. Kids love getting in on gingerbread house
making. So it's worth it's price in my opinion.
Where To Find:
We got this kit at Linen n Things. It is also available in a number of
other stores. I have seen it in CVS, Eckerd's and supermarkets.
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