Having made my first gingerbread house last year (recipe in this post) I wanted to make something bigger and more complex this year. That’s where my Civil Engineering degree comes in handy – it was my childhood dream to build skyscrapers. I decided to take inspiration from some of the cities I’ve travelled to this year – Hong Kong (now home … I made this my centerpiece), Melbourne (old/second home), Tokyo, Shanghai, Macau, London and Singapore. I also wanted to include Boracay, Seoul and Kunming but didn’t want to over complicate the gingerbread model.
Components of the gingerbread city:
Hong Kong: Bank of China Tower, The Centre
Melbourne: Eureka Tower, Melbourne Central Office Tower, Melbourne Cricket Ground
London: Tower Bridge, London Eye (or it could have been a Ferris wheel from any city …)
Tokyo: Pagoda of Sensoji – it was meant to be five stories but I kept it to three so it didn’t outshine the Bank of China Tower
Singapore: Marina Bay Sands … although several people mistook this for the Stonehenge 😦
Shanghai: Oriental Pearl Tower
Macau: The Ruins of St Paul’s
Recipe:
I used the same recipe as last year, although required two batches of gingerbread and two batches of icing to make all the components for the gingercity
Finished Gingercity:
Gingerbread city – all the gingerbread piecesGingerbread city – starting to put together the landmarksGingerbread city – Deciding how to arrange the cityCompleted Gingerbread city
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆ … – gingerbread itself is very simple … the more stressful parts are designing the template and waiting for the icing to set to hold the house together.
Inspiration:
Growing up, my childhood dream was to become an architect. I’ve always had an interest in buildings and construction (having studied Civil Engineering), so baking a gingerbread house was a very exciting Christmas project for me.
The inspiration for this gingerbread house? The French Provincial houses of the leafy Eastern suburbs of Canterbury and Kew in back home in Melbourne – featuring symmetrical proportions, steep roofs and a balcony. The Civil Engineering degree definitely came in handy when designing the house and roof dimensions and building a cardboard template.
Cardboard template
Ingredients:
Gingerbread (for a house ~ W30cm, H20cm, D20cm in size):
500g butter
400g dark muscovado sugar
10tsp golden syrup
1.2kg plain flour
4tsp bicarbonate soda
10g ground ginger
10g cinnamon powder
Royal Icing (made in 4 smaller batches):
4 egg whites
1kg pure icing sugar
To decorate – free to use whatever candy you can find, however this is what I chose:
maltesers as the rocks lining the side of the footpath
pastille lollies for the ’tiled’ footpath
rice paper sheets for the windows
marshmallow snowman
pocky sticks for the snowman arms
sour strap candy for the garage door and Christmas tree stars
almond flakes to line the ‘stone’ porch
preztels for the balconies and driveway
m&m Christmas lights
chocolate wafer roof
plain wafers for the corner detailing
Instructions:
Gingerbread:
Preheat oven to 200°C
Melt butter, sugar and golden syrup over low heat until all the butter has melted
Sift the flour, bicarbonate soda, cinnamon and ginger in a separate bowl
Stir melted butter into flour mixture to make a stiff dough
Divide the dough into 3-4 smaller batches and roll out to 1cm thickness
Tracing the cardboard template made earlier, cut out each piece of gingerbread
Cook in oven for 12 minutes until the edges start to brown
Remove from oven and allow to cool/dry to harden
all the baked gingerbread pieces
Royal icing:
Stir together egg whites and pure icing sugar until the mixture becomes a smooth icing
Place the icing sugar into a piping bag fitted with a small round nozzle and pipe along the edges of the gingerbread (one piece at a time) to join the house together. Ensure the walls of the house are completely dry before placing the roof on top of the house
gluing the pieces together with icing sugargingerbread house coming together
Decorate:
Use royal icing (resembling snow) to cover up the ‘messy’ corners and joints on the house
Also use royal icing to stick candy decorations to the house
piping ‘snow’ to cover up the joints and cornersFront of the house all decoratedback of the house
Party time:
Whilst I had so much fun baking, building and decorating the house …. the most exciting part is definitely showing off your house to friends and then demolishing and eating the house.
time to show off the houseenjoying the lovely view of Hong Kongdemolished
I’ll admit that I was a little sad to tear the house apart, however we did enjoy snacking away at the gingerbread house on a lovely Saturday afternoon in the sun.
I’m already looking forward to designing and baking another gingerbread house next year! 🙂
Whatever it bakes 