after last years winterfest was done i already started thinking about what i would wanted to do for my second try and building with cookies. and came up with the idea of using bricks (made from cookies ofcours) so i spent months looking for the right cookie cutter to help me with that. and i was searching for a cookie recepie as well that would give cookies that would not break to easly. i found a lot of recepies i wanted to try out, but with my 1 year old wanting a lot of atension and me not wanting to make to much noice in the evening was very happy and lucky when i found a box with cookie mix to build a x-mas tree with. so i used that cookie mix for my bricks (and got 4 diverent star-shaped cookie cutters with it)

after trying out 1 box to see if it would give me what i was looking for in the cookies i bouth a few more boxes so i was surten i would have enough bricks for my idea XD (i used 3 of the boxes total, and made way to many cookie bricks ^^' ) i spent 3 night backing all the bricks + base/fundation





my kitchen is not very big so i alsow thouth about how to do the base/fundation for the hous becaus i would be moving it around a lot so i could still make food as well.

for the icing i desided to put some grounded coffee in it, so that it would not be so white inbetween the bricks.

with everything ready it we could finaly start

and i found out with the first 2 layers that 2 was the max i could do and then had to wait a few hours for things to harden ^^'

so it was a slow build, but exiting at the same time

prepared the top parts of the windows and door


it's a bit hobly and for me gave it the feel of a very old hous that has bin standing for a few 100 years




after the suportbeams it was time for the roof (this turned out to be a chalance)


my first plan was to use wraps for the roof, these did not want to stick thow XD they kept sliding down

so had to come up with something els, first step was more suport for the roof

i had alsow bin thinking about flooring for the outside part and desided to use pannecakes (we where going to eat them anyway so i put some of the bater in a diveren bowl and put some pandan past in there, this gives the lovely green color and pandan flavor.) unfortunatly i did this while making dinner and forgot to make pics while doing this. at the same time i had made some mint tea and heated up some (plantbased) milk with blue butterflypea flowers in it. the mint tea turned slity green and the milk became very blue (these flowers are amazing!) i mixed the 2 drinks a bit until i got to a blue, tealish color that i liked and let this cool while we had dinner. when i came back downstairs (had to put the littel one to bed) i put the teal drink in a pan with some sugar and agar agar and put it to a boil... i got destracted a bit and it overboiled so quit a bit of it was lost thanks to that nad it was a mager mess, and it was not fun to clean. after everything was clean agen i put the remainder of the mixter into a bakingtray to cool and ones it was cooled enough i put it in the frits and hoped for the best.
after that adventur i went back to asembling and still thinking about what els i could use for the roof becaus i did not have anything lighter then wraps at home. (and i found out whith placing the hous on the bakingtray that the fundation was no longer atetsed to the hous XD it gave me a littel scare seeing that until i relised i was holding the hous withs was complety in tacked, withs proofs how stong that iceing is! to hold all those small bricks together)

i had made some green icing (used pandan past for this as well, made some white icing for later use as well) after covering the outside of the base/fundation with the green icing i placed some fire wood

best idea's i often have befor falling asleep, downside is that a lot of them i forget agen becaus of that, but the roof solution i remembered (probebly becaus i needed to find a solution XD ) and so my hunt for eadible paper started, becaus not many shops here have it. went to 4 diverent shops to see if they had it and ofcours the last one did. i was so happy

and even more happy when these did stick

i was a bid scared to take out the teal mix that should have turned jelly like, becaus i feared that by losing quit a bit of the mixter the kontetys may be to fare off for it to work. but turned out i was worryed about noting XD becaus trueth be told my agar agar jelly has never looked this good befor

so i could work on dressing the place up^^

building a pown


making a path and plasing heaps of snow


placed some lanturns past the path and some jellybean bushes (and used some as rocks in the pound and the lake at the back of the hous)
and with a finaly dusting of powder sugar/ snow the winter wonderland was finist

and some extra shots from diverent sides so more of the details are visibel^^








i realy like that thanks to the eadible paper letting truw light you can still see the beams of the sealing



and a final look from the back of the hous where if you look trew the window you can see the path at the front^^


i had a lot of fun making this and am already thinking about what to do next year (althow a bigger kitchen would be very nice to have for that XD) i had bigger plans but falling down the stairs between x-mas and new year (ok and a lack of space) kinda made that imposible (luckly only had bruses to show for falling down the stairs but it made sitting, standing and laying down very painfull and i could not realy do any of those thing for a long period of time, (when i would finaly fall asleep laying down was not a problem anymore, that only became a problem when i would wake up and had to get up XD )

So many wonderful entries again, I always look forward to seeing all the gingerbread creations ^^ Mine is a bit simpler, I wanted to make a little hobbit house after seeing Rachel Maksy make one a while back :D No snow because it's summer in New Zealand rn after all!


Some credit, these were my inspiration for the design :)






These grassy pancakes looked very strange to bake haha


Cake! With a ton of spices, and a little bit of cocoa powder


Went for speculaas instead of gingerbread, very similar but a bit lighter and crunchier


Freehanded everything since I didn't have time to make a template :') Also added some wood and brick textures.


The base, and last wip pic because after this I was distracted by the fun of decorating haha


And here's our little hobbit house~ With a well for fresh water, a sturdy wooden path to head into Hobbiton, and plenty of flowers and strawberry plants!

Started with some graham crackers (the kids decided I should have the broken ones as I would be able to do something with them (Though as they watched me work on mine, they began to see how they could utilize theirs still as they broke them. ^_^ I love inspiring their creativity ^w^ ).


Then I got a bit rambunctious and brought in the gingersnaps, vanilla wafers, redhots, and spice drops. Because gingersnaps, vanilla wafers, redhots, and spice drops. D_D


Sawing construction began... Plastic safety knives are not the most superb saws, but effective enough.


Sometimes decoration construction has to happen before structural construction...


The bridge is built and our currently completed structures are placed to begin setting the scene.


A nice little frozen stream trickles through.


A candy path meets our stream, leaving openings to get to our pavilions.


Adding some good green trees (and tasty too!)


Foliage complete.


One last finishing touch: a frosty lamppost with a sweet spicy glow.


A nice exciting but peaceful gingerbread house. ^__^

And here we are ... Gingerbread Houses. This is my first time making a gingerbread house except for the one I made out of pop tarts last year XD
Without further ado, let's go! And I apologize in advance for my lack of picture-taking, I suck at taking progress pics.

We start with a house! Magic! I did make the gingerbread from scratch, and then assembled it, but forgot to take pictures .... oops


And these are the decorations I'm working with. Some colored Mike and Ikes, pearl candies, mini candy canes, and circle peppermints. I also ended up getting some sprinkles and white chocolate chips later on.


And this is the backside decorated! I added smoke to the chimney, drips and sprinkles to the roof, and a little gingerbread star for the back door. And you can see my dog's head in the background, he looks so sad. XD


This is the little tray I put the house on. It's just a piece of paper with sprinkles all over it, it is also a bit smaller than I wanted but I didn't have enough sprinkles to cover anything larger.


Aaaand there it is! My finished gingerbread house. I added a little decoration to the front and did a border of white chocolate chips. This was such a fun process, a bit of a pain at times but overall a great experience and I'm super happy with how it turned out! ^^

Turned the Lights on

So this is the first time I've tried a gingerbred house(crazy right?) so I went with a premade kit :P I added alot of my own details and candies


A little nerve wracking trying to place the little sprinkles without pushing the house apart haha

Used some scissors to make shingles

So forgot to take pics adding the shingles and rooftop decorations and chimney -_- jump ahead to pretend lights!

some 'bushes' covered in 'lights'. I got the gum drops wet to make the sprinkles stick

experimented with the piping and sprinkles to make a decorated trees

Lots of powdered sugar snow and....done!! Sprayed the back side with water to help the sugar stick when I propped it up

The pictures are uploading to imgu as I had to retake them



I forgot to put the right sticky note for a while so oops

1st Place Winner(s)

Prizes: 2,000 Diamonds, Free Stable, [Peerless Avatar Token] x1, 3-Visible Winter Festival Themed Pet of Choice (2-Vis if Majestic) x2, [Philter of Trait Disruption] x3


Absoluteinsanity



Faeyla



Tigress


2nd Place Winner(s)

Prizes: 1,000 Diamonds, Free Stable, [Peerless Avatar Token] x1, 3-Visible Winter Festival Themed Pet of Choice (2-Vis if Majestic), [Philter of Trait Disruption] x1


Alicehearts



Falkinsey



Painteventer


3rd Place Winner(s)

Prizes: 500 Diamonds, Free Stable, [Peerless Avatar Token] x1, 3-Visible Winter Festival Themed Pet of Choice (2-Vis if Majestic)


Fantasizing



Malas120



Redacact


All Participants

Prizes: Title: Gingerbread Architect, [Fabled Frost Essence] x1, [Premium Ice Water] x2, [Box of Ice Sculpting Supplies] x1, [Box of Ice Sculpting Agents] x2, [Avatar Item (Winter - Retired)] x3, [Frost Token] x1,000


1st Place Raffle Winner
Winner: Kalores
Prize: 2,000

2nd Place Raffle Winner
Winner: Varyntha
Prize: 1,000

3rd Place Raffle Winner
Winner: Earisa
Prize: 500