Tag Archives: gingerbread

December 27, 2012

Christmas swapsies

I think I signed up for a record number of swaps over the festive period. I really enjoyed putting them together and it gave me the opportunity to make some lovely decorations.

You may remember last year I signed up for an Advent Swap and I enjoyed it so much I did it again this year. The idea was to send 25 small items and I loved choosing the little items and wrapping them. Of course I was equally happy to open a small gift every day through Advent! I was paired with Melanie, aka The Patchwork Robin, who sent me a lovely selection of items. I hung her gifts from a coat hanger to stop my children from opening them all.

Again like last year I also joined in with Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping vintage Christmas swap. We had to send our partners a mixture of items: something second hand, something handmade and something relating to a Christmas carol or song. I made my partner three felt decorations and received a brilliant parcel from Tracey who blogs at Single Married Mum. She used a vintage box as packaging which is a great idea. I also love the knitted donkey which looks perfect on our tree.

Craftaholics Anonymous organise two swaps a year and I’ve previously signed up to the Summer Handmade Gift Exchange. My partner for the 2012 Handmade Gift Exchange Holiday 2012 was Jenn who knitted me a gorgeous washcloth as well as a knitted sleeve for my takeaway hot chocolates!

Finally, I signed up for the 2012 Secret Santa Bloggers Gift Exchange. It was a secret exchange so I can’t tell you what I sent my partner but I received the perfect package from my Secret Santa. Gingerbread cutters, chocolate, a gingerbread man ornament and a lovely tin.

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Filed under gingerbread, handmade, swap, vintage

Tagged as advent, Christmas, felt, gingerbread, handmade, swaps

December 22, 2012

Our 2012 Gingerbread House

You can probably guess from the title of my blog that I love gingerbread houses! This year we made a kit from John Lewis over a couple of days. The toddler was really excited about it as he loves his “gin-gin” men! First of all he helped daddy put the kit together, then we left it to dry overnight.

The next day we got out all our sweetie supplies which included icing pens, liquorice wheels, Necco wafers for roof tiles and gumdrops for the fence.

We got to work, the toddler mainly ate the sweets whilst I iced and strategically placed the sweets.

We all love it although there have been mutterings about when we get to eat it. Hopefully it will last until at least Christmas Day!

I’m not the only person who’s been busy in the kitchen and I thought I’d share some of my favourite gingerbread houses.

I can’t believe this is Jennifer’s first attempt and I like the idea of decorating with chocolate rather than sweets.

Helen from The Crazy Kitchen shares her tips for building a gingerbread house, using chocolate cake covering which hardens quicker than icing and tastes better too

Emma at Cakes and Scribbles has made a lovely festive gingerbread house, as has Angie at Cakes Photos Life whose roof is made from shiny chocolate coins. There are so many ways to decorate gingerbread houses.

Emily at a mummy too has created her gingerbread house using a mould from Lakeland. I also bought this so I can’t wait to give it a try next year. It includes instructions for a chocolate and gingerbread house, needless to say we’ll want to try both!

Cas at Mummy Never Sleeps goes one step further and has created an awesome gingerbread igloo. She says she knew what she wanted to create and has even included a fish! I can’t wait to see what she makes next.

Finally, I love these no bake gingerbread houses from Maggy at Red Ted Art. What a genius idea to use chocolate biscuits, definitely one we’ll be trying next year.

If you’ve made your own gingerbread house why not join in with Helen’s gingerbread house linky.

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Filed under baking, Christmas, gingerbread, gingerbread house

Tagged as baking, Christmas, Christmas crafts, gingerbread, gingerbread house, handmade

December 18, 2012

Gingerbread houses, biscuits and kits

Have you spotted many gingerbread houses around this year? Everywhere I look (or shop) there seems to be one but I’ve tried to be good and only bought ones I know we’ll have time to make.

So far we’ve had fun trying the following pre-made kits:

Create A Treat House Gingerbread Kit from John Lewis (£15)

Create A Treat Village Gingerbread Kit from John Lewis (£15)

Gingerbread house kit from Tiger

We’ve also eaten a fair few gingerbread biscuits (all in the name of research):

Make Your Own Gingerbread Decorating Kit from John Lewis (£4.50)

Morrison’s Jolly Gingerbread Men biscuits

Ikea Pepparkaka Figurer

Joe and Seph’s gourmet Gingerbread popcorn (ok, not technically gingerbread!)

Tesco’s gingerbread tin and biscuits

We’ve made some too:

Waitrose Gingerbread Christmas Tree Kit (Introductory offer of £3.30 normally £5.00)

Sainsbury’s gingerbread dough block (£2)

We’ve also seen the fantastic gingerbread version of that iconic Oxford Street building that is Selfridges. The gingerbread department store, known as ‘Not your Usual Gingerbread house’, was created by the Biscuiteers and apparently took them 4 days to construct and ice, and measures 350 x 350 x 930mm. The window also features over 150 of their delicious iced biscuit tree decorations.

Even our local garden centre has got in on the act. Not in the same league as Selfridges, but we quite liked their gingerbread house, with slices of toast for roof tiles and a selection of iced biscuits, bourbon creams and Rich Tea biscuits for walls!

You can’t beat the smell and taste of gingerbread during the festive season. Let me know if you’ve tried any products we might like