Taking the Work Out of Making a Gingerbread House
Written: Dec 10 '06 (Updated Dec 11 '06)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Already assembled and ready to decorate right out of the box
Cons: All you get to do is decorate
The Bottom Line: A cute house with minimal work is only an hour away!
|
|
|
| mmcphee's Full Review: Wilton Gingerbread House Kit 2104-1583 |
I have always loved gingerbread houses at Christmas time. This year I decided to share the interest with my daughters. I purchased the Wilton Gingerbread House Kit.
What You Get and What You Need
Inside the box comes a small preassembled gingerbread house attached to a cardboard base. The house is approximately 5 1/2" square and almost 5" tall. You also get a bag of powdered mix for making the icing "glue", 150 assorted candies (mini spice drops, fruit rounds, and jelly bean shaped candies), a disposable decorating bag with tip and instructions for completing the house.
In addition you will need water to add to the icing mix along with a mixer and bowl to prepare it. You will need scissors for cutting a hole in the decorating bag. Wilton also recommends a butter knife (or angled spatula) Confectioner's sugar and cornstarch; none of which we used. You will also need an hour or more and a lot of patience!
Skipping Ahead to Step 8
My love of gingerbread houses means I have built several from "scratch." I designed the buildings, built test structures out of cardboard, mixed dough, baked extra pieces (just in case), dried them, carefully assembled the house, dried that and then finally began decorating. It easily takes me 2 weeks to get from design to the point of decorating. Try doing that with young children who want to do it now. And, yes, a bit selfishly, if I have put that much effort into getting a house to the fun point of decorating it, I want to do it and I want it to look like what I set out to do. I love my children and I love their creativity but smearing white frosting on a house with fingers is not exactly what I have in mind.
I bought this kit with the idea that this house would entirely be the work of my two young daughters. I did the mixing of the icing to ensure we got the right consistency, I filled the decorating bag, outlined one door to show them how to work with the bag and then the rest is all them. And the results look as though it was completed by a 3 1/2 and 5 year old, which is to say just perfect!
The kit was easy to work with. The house was covered in bubble wrap to ensure it remained in one piece. The walls are thick and sturdy so even the not so light touch of children will not cause the structure to collapse. Admittedly the house is not put together with the exacting specifications to which I build mine. There are gaps between pieces and some of the icing used to stick pieces together is oozing out much more than necessary. This did not bother my young children in the slightest, but it might be bothersome to adults who are aiming for a nicely finished house. Still this got my children quickly and easily to the fun part of making a gingerbread house, the decorating!
The kit includes suggestions for decorating three different houses, all of them cute and all of them using every drop of candy to complete, so don't plan on eating any of it. You may want to pick up a bag of M&Ms or other candy to supplement what is included, because there isn't much variety. However my girls were done having fun just as the candy ran out so you certainly can complete the kit with what is included.
It took my daughters about an hour to finish the house. Each girl did two side and one half of the roof. That seemed to be enough space for them to fill at their ages. They did fairly well sharing the candy and decorating bag. The biggest problem they had was putting on more frosting than they could fill with candy before it started to dry. I purposely mixed the frosting on the thick side so it wouldn’t run on them, but that also gave them less working time. I then showed them how to add frosting on the bottom of the candy before sticking it on the house. Of course with only one bag that didn't last long. I finally spooned some frosting into small bowls and just had them dip their candy pieces in the icing to attach them. Since this was toward the end of the project I just kept my eye on the frosting and added a couple of drops of water now and then to keep the icing soft.
Final Thoughts
The Wilton Gingerbread House Kit is great way to introduce anyone to the decorating aspects of gingerbread houses. Your results will vary depending on your level of patience and skill. There is nothing difficult or particularly challenging and my daughters had no trouble decorating their house with minimal supervision. Maybe next year I'll buy each of them their own house!
Personally, a gingerbread house is a labor of love and something I enjoy every step of the way. But for anyone interested in making a house without devoting weeks of free time to it, a kit may be just the way to go!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 7.44
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
mmcphee
|
 in Books |
 - Top 50 |
|
Member: Mary Ellen
Location: Nutmeg State
Reviews written: 1174
Trusted by: 222 members
About Me:
Back from Disney and catching up!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.