Haunted Halloween Houses 2011

It's been a while since I posted the images on how to glue the gingerbread pieces together with melted brown sugar. But we did finally decorate them.  Some of the candy came in the box with the house such as the pointed spires.  Some of the candy Grandma purchased and the cute little leaves came from Wilton too but in a bottle instead of the box.  I wish I had not put as much of the recommended water in the icing - it was a little runny - that was fine for the green grass but not on the vertical pieces of the house.  I did buy extra color paste - in brown, orange, green, and black.  

 This pumpkin patch is my favorite along with the path to the house.  I added green icing to the tops of the pumpkins to get the leaves to stick.  Fun!

I  hope you had a wonderful and safe Halloween!

25 photos 'til Christmas - Day 16

The gingerbread ornaments - They look really cute from further away.  I learned a few things along the way.  Making Royal Icing is really easy.  It's really pretty - glossy.  If you want sprinkles to stick to it, you better not wait.  Pipe out a little bit at a time or at record speed. Add sprinkles.  Repeat until finished with cookie. Get bigger cookie cutters - the chunky sprinkles look like a bit much on these average size cookies.  And last of all, if I'm ever going to do this again, I must buy some cookie decorating supplies instead of making do with corner cut out of a ziploc bag. I do love how they turned out, simply because we made them with my children and they had FUN.

My daughter decorated this one.

25 photos 'til Christmas - Day 15

I love the smell of gingerbread baking in the oven. Maybe you saw our Haunted Gingerbread Houses? And we also made ornaments for our tree - photos coming soon. It's also very time consuming and I'm allergic to it - wheat flour that is- so my husband purchased this kit for the kids.  It had just the right amount of candy.

And the icing was royal icing. It dries nicely but it was a little difficult for my children to apply it but it was fun watching them decorate the train with just a little help from me.

I helped my son by applying a thick layer of icing where he wanted it. Then he went to work with the candy.  He got brave near the end and went to town on his own.

We are displaying it proudly in our home.  All of our decorations will stay up until my birthday in January.