Gingerbread House challenge

This month I decided to take part in Yum sugar's Gingerbread house challenge. I had never made a gingerbread house before, except for a premade piece it together kit that my mum bought me last year, so it was a very exciting venture for me.

Yesterday I set about making the gingerbread. I made a double batch of a gingerbread recipe from a commonsense cookbook. Then, I got out a drwaing pad and designed a very simple little cottage and cut out the templates. I shaped and baked the dough and then later in the afternoon I constructed the house with royal icing -made of eggwhites and icing sugar.

I left the decoration till today to allow the icing to really set as I didn't want it to all fall down. I bought a huge stack of lollies and spent the whole afternoon glueing them on with more royal icing to make my house. Here are some photos. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making the house. Thanks to Yum Sugar for arranging this compettion.