Winter Festival - Gingerbread House


The object of this contest is to build a real life Gingerbread House using edible materials! This is not a digital contest, so no digital entries. You can't eat pixels.


Rules

1. Your Gingerbread House must be built by using any type of food. You are not required to use gingerbread. You are free to use crackers, other types of bread, chocolate, candy, etc. However, you must use real food in this contest! The small use of non food items (like toothpicks) are allowed to improve the structural integrity of your submission. They must be used sparingly though and it must be obvious that your submission consists of actual edible materials.

2. When building your Gingerbread House, you must take at least 3 pictures of the process with your Username and "2021 Winter Festival" physically visible. Here is an example of how this should look:


You do not need to post them in a grid like this. I just did this to save space.

Here is a link to last year's contest for reference:
2020 Winter Festival - Build a Gingerbread House

3. When you are finished with your entry, come back to this thread and post it here.

A Player Guide on How to Upload Images

4. You must create your entry on your own! You cannot have someone else build your Gingerbread House for you, although having some assistance is perfectly fine and reasonable. All submissions must also be brand new; you cannot use previous submissions. Lastly, please try and come up with your own unique designs. Obviously, using a kit is okay to do and those will probably be similar because kits are generally universal. What I am referring to would be copying someone else's previous design from a past contest and redoing it as your own; some of you have come up with some pretty awesome unique designs in the past!

If you have never created a Gingerbread House before, here are some handy tutorials to get you started:

Link 1 (Offsite)
Link 2 (Offsite)

5. Please do not reserve posts. Only post when you are ready to submit an entry. If your entry is still ongoing, you may post early with the progress that you currently have and edit your post as you finish.

6. Please do not ping me unless you have a specific question or concern that I need to address. Thank you.

7. The due date for submitting your entry is by the end time of Forum Games for the Winter Festival. Please refer to the eventual Overview thread for this final date. The Overview thread will be posted once the Winter Festival officially begins.


Prizes

All submissions will be judged by Krinadon and Faiona. We will announce winners for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places. Everyone who submits a valid entry will be awarded very nice participation prizes as well as the Title: Gingerbread Architect.

All non-winning Participants will be entered into a drawing where 3 Lucky Winners will win 2,000, 1,000, and 500 Diamonds, respectively.

Above all else, be creative and have fun! These contests are just meant to be fun. =)


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

Here's mine:


Dough made.


Dough chilling.


Royal icing getting whipped.


Gingerbread baked and ready for assembly.


Assembled and ready for decorations.


Front and side decorated.


Back and side decorated.

decided to attempt making gingerbread for the first time, it went surprisingly well xD
batch one

batch 2 (and 3+4)

first batch cooked and cut

second batch cooked and cut

third and forth batches cooked and cut, and stack of cooled pieces

put it together fairly easily, although it's crooked

made first batch of royal icing, covered the sugar used to hold pieces together, and covered the base with "snow"

made second batch of royal icing and decorated. front

one side

back

other side


overall making this was fun, and i like it, even if it's quite messy, so that's what matters to me.

Was gifted a kit so I figured I'd participate... (I also learned fondant is a pain...)


Unpackaging parts...



Houses are Built



Almost Finished, only final details left (hands got shaky forgot to eat, oops)


Done


Best Pic... Hands finally stopped shaking...

My "Gingerbread House" is here! I cannot wait to eat it!

It is a fabled chocolate Christmas house, complete with side hut for extra friends! <3



Man that's a lot of chocolate!



It's starting to come together!



Now we have a roof over our heads~



Gaze upon it in all its chocolatey decorated glory!



Oh wait, my supervisor came by to make sure it was up to code!

okay well here is my masterpiece xD it took like... 3 hours lol. i forgot to write everything on a card, but i did take progress pics on my instagram, so i hope that counts. my username and everything is included :3
















btw im doing this on my phone so lmk if it looks silly D: photos /should/ b clickable to see the pic better

Decided to try making a round hut. After much math, patterns cut out of cardboard


Gingerbread dough mixed up


Baked pieces on the left and even more ready for the oven


Made up some royal frosting and began assembly of the hut. A microfile was my friend when it came to the last piece.


The roof was assembled and actually came together better than I feared. Guess my math wasn't too bad. I forgot to take a picture, so I got one while I started putting the thatching on (shredded wheat cut in half).


I found some ribbon candy that I cut into small strips and "glued" multi-colored tic-tacs to using royal frosting. These then went around the roof. The building was covered in remnants of shredded wheat. I then melted butterscotch candies in the oven on the side of a bowl to get a curve that would allow me to put them into the window.


Made up some sugar cookie dough and colored it a couple of shades of green


The finished hut. I added tic-tacs around the windows. A wreath for over the door. Trees and bushes made from the sugar cookies. Pathway lined with marshmallows cut in half and the rainbow colored nerds for the inside.


Side view


Close-up of the wreath above the door (my husbands favorite part). Sugar cookie base and then cut pieces of the ribbon candy and "glued" with royal frosting.


The roof is removable so I can put a light inside. It looks cool through the windows and the door, but couldn't really get a good picture of it.

Thisis first time I made my own house... took about3weeks from start to finish
dueto hollidays
So without further adooo










- orange ball dropped off




- troll girl has dandriff lol

I'm always struggling to finish these submission posts in time, so this year, I'm going to try posting stuff as I go :)

I made a sketch last night of what I was envisioning; it would involve custom templates though, so I'm a tad concerned for the structural integrity of my house :"))


Day 1:
I bought all the ingredients I was missing and got to work :)


I made two batches of dough to be sure I'll have plenty to work with :)


They're chilling in the fridge right now as I figure out how architecture works

Day 1.5 (oops somehow it's 4am :"))))
I started with sketching out the shapes on paper (wayy too much math for the wee hours of morning), then cut out the shapes in cardboard to assemble into a mock up of the actual gingerbread house. Here's a picture of the large side portion of the house:

(sorry the name tag is missing >.<)

This part was fairly simple; getting the smaller side of the house to fit was more of a struggle. I either forgot how to trig or I just can't math at 2am, but the slanted roof pieces were way off. I ended up just trimming the cardboard pieces until they fit. >:) Fast forward to 4am

I also made a brand new name tag since my old one got destroyed while making gingerbread.

I probably used up more time than I should making the mock up, but it did help me iron out some issues with the design, so hopefully it'll make things easier down the line.

Day 2-2.5 (it's only 2am, this is improvement)
Boards and snow wars threw my schedule off a bit, but I was able to spend the rest of the evening baking.

I started off with cutting out the shapes I needed using pieces of my cardboard house as a stencil. Batches were baked as I went to make things go faster.


After the baked pieces had cooled enough to handle, I trimmed the edges to make sure they still matched the stencil. I also freehanded a window in one of the fronts. The original design has a lot more windows, but I might throw some out to make things simpler :p


Even with a doubled batch of gingerbread, I still ended up short 1/2 a batch (namely the bricks for the base and chimney). I'll make another batch tomorrow while the icing sets since I have everything I need to start assembling the base house. :D


Day 3:
Got an earlier start today and managed to assemble most of my gingerbread house :D

I started with cutting out windows for another side panel then melted some jolly ranchers to make the windows. I had way less jolly ranchers than I thought I did, so I ended up substituting in some candy canes which is why my windows don't match :"))


While the windows hardened, I made a batch of royal icing to glue my house together :D


Fast forward a couple hours, here's my finished base:


It seemed easier to add the porch area after adding the bricks to the sides, so I left them out for now. (Plus I accidentally broke a piece. I glued it together with icing, but if it doesn't stick, I'll have to remake that piece later)

I also made another batch of gingerbread for the bricks, trimming, and well. That's currently chilling in the fridge; I'll probably bake it later tonight.

Day 4:
It's been a long day, let's see if I still remember what I did :"))

I was too tired to bake last night so I started off by baking some bricks, trimming for the windows, the roof? for the well, and some accessories for my snowman.


While the gingerbread was baking, I made some marshmallow fondant for the snowman. I tried mixing some shredded coconut with the fondant (the smaller ball on the right) and that seemed to hold its shape better.


Instead of making a normal boring snowman like I orginally planned, I was inspired to make a Sylestian snowman >:D I used gingerbread for the eyes and arms, sesame seeds for the mouth, melted candy canes for the scarf (which turned out to be a huge struggle to work), and the hats made out of extra fondant (I just forgot to add them before taking the picture). I carved mini carrot noses, but forgot that osmosis was a thing so the carrots were leaking water and melting holes in the faces :/ (They're in the freezer right now; I'll add them at the very end).

Art Credit: Somneli

Onward to the house, I assembled the chimney and wall from the bricks. The wall was pretty simple, but the chimney was more of a challenge since I had to cut the bricks to fit the slanted roof. Altogether very pleased with the end result though :D

(Bonus pic of Scooter waiting for me to accidentally drop some bricks)

I put together the porch and whitewashed the house with icing ^^ It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but I also painted the door with some white chocolate.


Fast forward another hour or so, I thatched the roof with frosted wheats cut in half so it was a) thinner and b) had a flat side which was easier to work with.


I was almost out of icing, so I used the remainder to add another layer of "paint" to my house. Tomorrow I'll have to make another batch of icing, bake some more bricks for the well, add trim to the windows, layout the garden, and add snow ^ ^

Day 5:
I made another batch of icing to add "snow" to the chimney and wall, as well as gluing the trimming around the windows


I ran out of bricks again, so I baked another batch to make the well ^^ While the bricks were cooling, I used some extra trimming to set up a garden box w/ crushed oreos as dirt.


Finally, I put together the roof for the well, covered it in icing, and coated it with crushed peppermint candy

Although I was aiming for a more realistic looking house, I decided that there needed to be /some/ color so I put some sprinkles on the room and candy cane decorations around the front porch.

Day...6:
2 week time jump since I got sucked into zoom university.

I added the final touches of three poinsettia wreaths, two holly wreaths, a pile of snowballs, and a layer of freshly fallen powdered sugar snow ^^


There was a last minute casualty as one of the snowman's lower arms broke off D:
But don't worry! He's recuperating well with some icing and a snowball crutch.


Final picture :)

Here's my attempt at a gingerbread house~ Used a kit because I'm lazy. :')