I decided to go back to the original size house this year (keeping it small) and do more decorating. I made a full batch of dough, and still had enough extra to make about a dozen cookies (yum!). This recipe not only smells great, and makes a pretty stable house, it takes great, too!I roll out the dough between precut sheets of parchment paper, and bake on the paper on a cookie sheet. Having two ovens makes it go quicker, but it does heat up the kitchen (not a good thing in Florida!). We did stained glass windows this year, by putting broken up pieces of Lifesaver candies in the window areas during the last 3 minutes of cooking.
We made a base of sugar cubes and icing, and then placed the house ontop of that. The gazebo has a base made of chocolate sugar wafers.
The roof is made of Big Red cinnamon gum, cut into thirds, and attached with icing. This gives the house a great cinnamon aroma that lasts and lasts.
The fence was made with small twist pretzels. The base of the house and the pathway is made of broken pieces of Necco wafers.
The pillars at the front of the house are made with pirouette cookies. The gazebo was tricky. the weight of the top kept wanting to fall or twist the candy cane pillars. The candy cane lights were also tough to keep standing. They had to be propped up until the icing hardened.
Finished in two days!
