Sarah O'Neill
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December 24, 2019
Etcetera
Building a gingerbread home is a popular holiday pastime formany families. It’s a source of creativity and a tasty treat.
You may recall, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA)is a big fan of gingerbreadhouses.
Much like selling a home, the real challenge of agingerbread house build becomes: how do you stage your (gingerbread) home tostand out from the crowd?
We’ve rounded up a few tips to help you build a dazzlinggingerbread house from the ground up – including a no-fuss recipe for royalicing.
Choose a colour scheme
Candy comes in every colour imaginable. You could make yourgingerbread house a rainbow of festive sweets, but if you want to elevate yourtreat, try picking a colour scheme like silver and gold, red and green ormostly red treats with a few colourful gum drops thrown in for fun.
Go green
Curb appeal is important. Adding greenery can freshen up theexterior of any home—real or edible. You can try wrapping rosemary around acone to make a tree or tie it together in the shape of a circle for a wreath.If you’d like to keep things sweet, you can also create greenery usinggreen-coloured rice cereal treat, spearmint leave candies, tree-shaped cookiesor by using green icing piped onto an ice cream cone.
Walk it out
You can create a fun pathway to your gingerbread house usingcandy bricks, Pez, peppermint candies or Nerds (for a faux pebble look). Youmay also be able to find rock-shaped candies. Make sure you “glue” downwhatever candy stones you’re are using with plenty of royal icing.
Bonus tip: Try framing your path with licorice. It will give a nice pop of red and help keep your candies in place.
Walls
There’s nothing wrong with leaving your walls bare and lettingthe gingerbread cookie shine through. However, if you want your gingerbreadhouse to have a more rustic look, you could adhere pretzel sticks to the wallsto achieve a log cabin look.
Alternatively, slices of gum work well to create abrick-like appearance. You could also create a pattern using different shapedcandies. It’s your gingerbread house, there are no rules!
Raise the roof
There are several ways you can create shingles on yourgingerbread house: cereal, wafers, pretzel snaps, sliced almonds, peppermintcandies or thin gingersnaps. Choose the treat that matches your theme.
To make your house look extra festive try piping some icing icicles along the edge. Start with a small dot of icing then slowly pull your icing tip down to create a peak.
Adapted from a Canadian Living recipe.
Ingredients:
- 4 cups icing sugar
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 3 egg whites
Method:
Sift the icing sugar and cream of tartar into a bowl. Beat egg whites for seven to 10 minutes or until icing is thick enough to hold its shape.
Bonus: If you plan on eating your gingerbread house you can experiment with adding vanilla, lemon or peppermint extract to your icing.
Knock, knock
Every home needs a door. You could simply create a door
silhouette using royal icing, but you could also use a long oval or rectangular
shaped cookie. Add a candy doorknob and icing details to make it more realistic.
Add some sparkle
If you want your gingerbread house to have that magical,
sparkly, fresh snow look, throw a little white sugar over your icing. Voila!
Fresh glistening snow.
Whether you’re decorating a whimsical gingerbread house or
staging a quaint bungalow, strategically arranging furnishings and décor will
allow your house to look its best.
Do you have a tip for staging a home (real or of the ginger
variety)? Tell us about it in the Comment section.
As a Communications Advisor, Sarah O'Neill is responsible for developing a variety of internal and external communication materials—from blog content to newsletters, and social posts to speaking notes. Prior to joining CREA, Sarah worked as a journalist in a small town and as a national online editor at one of Canada’s largest news media companies. In her spare time, Sarah can be found renovating her century home, working out at the gym or binge-watching bad reality TV.
