house design dimensions

welcome to how to cook that, i'm ann reardon,and today we are going to make this beautiful gingerbread house complete with two storeys,lights inside this area, we've got lollies inside this half, a tree and there's evena little pond out the back. and also, yes we're doing a giveaway so you have a chanceto win one of two of these breville stand mixers and you can enter from wherever youare in the world, i'll put a link below to the website where the entry form is. and youcan also win one of 10 of the gingerbread house moulds which is the mould that i'm goingto use today to make this one. so click on the link below so that you can go and fillout the entry form to enter there for that one. also as well in a couple of weeks timei'm going to be doing a meet and greet in

melbourne so if you want the details of thatand where to come and meet me click below, i'll put a link saying meet and greet melbourneso you can get all the details of that one. so the first thing we need to do is make ourdough and for that we need golden syrup, plain or all purpose flour, butter, brown sugar,ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. and i had a lot of people asking last year can ileave out the ginger, yes you can you can change these spices completely they are justfor flavour so make it how you want it to be. you can get all of the ingredient quantitieson the howtocookthat.net website and i'll link you to that below.add the spices, brown sugar and the butter

into the bowl with the golden syrup.mix those together on low speed until they are well combined, that will take just a coupleof minutes. then gradually add in the flour and mix untilyou have a smooth dough. split your dough into three and set two ofthose aside. then cut the one you have in half, then in half again. then cut acrossthose once more so that you're going to make eight even pieces of dough. take two of thewedges and roll them into a ball. cut each one of those in half again. then add thoselittle pieces onto four of your wedges so you end up with four bigger portions and twosmaller ones. the two smaller ones are for the walls and the larger ones are for theroof. just push them into the silicon mould

pressing down using you hands to make sureyou get right to the edges. now if you don't have one of these moulds i'll also put a templateon the website and if you're just using that you can just roll out the dough and cut aroundthe template instead. use the palm of your hand to flatten out the back so it's niceand smooth. then slide that onto a baking tray and bakein the centre of the oven. take the other two portions of dough and press them intothe two end wall sections. we are going to make a larger house today so we are goingto bake this three times so that's why we had the three portions of dough and then weare going to put it all together to make the one big house.

when you are baking the second set, don'tmake one of the roof sections because we don't need one of them. we are going to use someof that dough to make a door instead. then when you make the third one make all the wallsand roof like we did the first time and use the leftover dough from the second one tomake another door so we end up with two doors. once they are baked and golden brown tip themout of the silicone mould and with set cut off the top of the end walls and then we alsowant the little triangles off the very top. so trim them off too so you end up with twolittle triangles and two rectangle walls there. and if you cut this while it's still hot itwill be soft enough to cut, you may also need to straighten up the top edge of the sidewalls as well because sometimes that spreads

a little bit in the oven and you want it tobe straight. with your next set, tip it out and using the template trim one of the endwalls to make it smaller, we will use this for the archway out the front. then take one of the roof pieces and cut outtwo rectangles and this is for the roof of that archway section. so that it fits togethernicely at the top you need to cut it on a downwards angle going inwards so that onceit's cut it sits nicely together. if you want to you can also take a knife andcut out the windows and this is good if you want lights inside the house. so you should end up with all of these piecesplus 2 doors and the front archway.

to make the royal icing, which is kind oflike the glue that holds the whole gingerbread house together, you need icing sugar, youneed some powdered egg white or if you can't get that you can use the pavlova magic mixesand you need some water. and all you do is put it all into the bowl of your stand mixer... noisy, noisy, noisy ... the egg white or i'm using the pavlova magic mix, a littlebit of powder there, and the water. and then turn that on just on low. that looks goodand then once that's looking like it's all moist then you can turn it up onto high speed.beautiful. and that looks great, so see how it's justholding it's own shape there so when we pipe the sides of the gingerbread house it's alljust going to hold together.

place some of the icing into a piping bagand use it to join these walls together for the two story part of the house. so you arejoining an end wall that we cut the top off with another end wall. two side walls, anothertwo end walls and another two side walls. run a teaspoon along to take off the excessicing and then leave them to dry overnight. if you are in a hurry you could use compoundchocolate to join these instead so you don't have to wait overnight. i don't want a window on the second storyof this one but i accidentally cut it out already so i am just going to fill that onein because that is where the roof slope join will be.take about half of your icing mix and add

in a little bit of colour to make it a creamycolour or you could make it pink or whatever colour you want your walls to be.outline around the top half of the walls making sure you get into the bumps on the gingerbreadand outline around the windows too. add some water into the leftover colouredfrosting and mix it until it is about this consistency, it should be about the thicknessof honey. spoon that onto the wall and spread it outall over the whole area, just like you're plastering it or rendering the outside ofa house. and this is what the outline was needed for. it just stops the icing from runningoff the edges of the wall which means we can get a nice flat, even coating of the colour.

for the bottom half of the wall i am goingto use a brick texture mat and i got this one in a kids book - i'll put a link to thatbelow as well. pour some white chocolate on the top, thenuse a palette knife just to scrape it off so that the white chocolate is just down inthe brick indents but not on the top. let that set then spoon dark chocolate over thebottom half of the house or you could use milk chocolate whatever you prefer - i justlove chocolate-coated gingerbread. neaten up the edges and then add the bricks to thetop, pressing down to make sure you've got rid of any air bubbles. once it is set just peel the texture mat offand then cut the extra chocolate out of the

windows and we have a nice brick wall. turn the four roof pieces upside down andcover the backs and sides of them in chocolate and we want to do that with the little roofpieces for the archway as well. it is quite hard to ice the underside of the roof onceit is in place on the house so doing it now will be a bit quicker and a bit neater. pour the rest of the chocolate onto some non-stickpaper and spread it out thinly, making sure you temper your chocolate if it has cocoabutter in to or you could use compound chocolate. there is a video on the how to cook that youtubechannel that explains tempering and all the difference between real chocolate and compoundchocolate for you.

once it is starting to set run a pizza cutteralong making straight lines and straight cuts so that we can make roof tiles. now they don'thave to be an exactly the same size because i want it to be a little bit rustic so justroughly cut them so they're all little rectangles. for the windows place some isomalt into asaucepan and just heat over high heat until it melts.once it is melted pour it into the windows and make sure you have some foil underneath.once they are cooled just peel them off and the isomalt will be solid and clear. you canalso do this using sugar or melted candies but it doesn't work as well or last as long.so that you can see the difference some of the windows on the two storey one i'll dothem out of sugar.

place then end wall and two side walls toone side of your board. so just lay them out how you want them to be. and then pipe somefrosting along the joins going up two of the walls and along the base. then lift up your pieces and put them intoplace. add some more icing along the centre joinand then put the end wall without the top window here with the finished side facinginto the inside of the house that you've already done.now you will need to put a cup or something inside for a little while just to supportit. cups are a good idea because they've go the handle sticking out so you can kind oflean that on the wall without the base of

it touching the icing. then add extra icingto the inside corner joins to strengthen them. add frosting down one side and across thebase and add in the next two storey wall and again you're going to need a cup to supportthat into place. do the same on the opposite wall and then the end wall. and you'll need to leave those for about 30minutes so that they're firm enough to take the cups out before we put our roof on. add icing along the top of the wall and upone side and place one half of the roof into place. and then where it is meeting on thewall there add your little triangle for support. add the other side of that roof. and thenat the front you can add a tiny bit of gingerbread

from one of the off-cuts to extend the roofaround the join. now for the second storey roof it's the samething. just pipe icing all the way around the top. add one half of the roof into placethen put icing across the top for the middle join and then add the other half. supportyour roof while it sets so it doesn't slide off. you can use cups or you can use likespoons secured onto the counter with blu-tack like i've got here, whatever you need justto hold it gently in place until it's firm. line up the front section and measure up wherethe triangle needs to sit and put it into place using some icing. then to hide the joinson the front of the house i am using sour candy you could use licorice or whatever youhave that is sort of in this long shape just

to hide where the joins are. add icing to top of the archway and to thebase of it. and put it into place, put some icing on the top of the triangle and thenadd the roof for that section. use your coloured icing just to neaten upthe sides here and also neaten up any of the joins on the house where you can still seethe gingerbread or if it looks a bit messy. for the roof tiles, to join them on, justadd some chocolate and then just add the tiles going across, starting from the base and workingyour way up to the top of the house. you could use candy for this instead. when i am decoratinga house with the kids each person just gets one side of the house and you can decorateit however you like. it's your house so just

go crazy. for the front of the archway trim two candycanes so they are just a little curved at the top. and then cut them to the right height.cut the third one to make the middle little bit of the archway and add them into placejust using some icing. for the window sills take some cherry ripe and cut small piecesthen add them to the base of the windows. take some green soft candy i am using a mintleaf here, and cut out chunks from it and cut out triangles so that you are left withlots of little spiky bits so it looks a bit like a plant. add that onto the wind silljust using a little bit of chocolate to attach it.

for the christmas lights roll a long snakeof fondant and then add fruit tic tacs or other small candies evenly spacing them along.if you just use a little bit of water on the back of the candy it will make it stick tothe fondant. then drape those lights across the top ofthe house. again just using a tiny bit of water to make the fondant stick. add anotherstring of lights to the other side and keep that going around the top of the house. now for the garden. melt some marshmallowsin the microwave on high for about 2 minutes. pour in a cup of rice bubbles and stir itreally well. rice bubbles are the same as rice crispies, they are just called a differentthing here in australia.

then add another cup and stir that throughand finally a third cup and stir that through and you'll get a nice sticky mixture likethis. add it to the ground on the side of the house,now if you wet your fingers it will stop it sticking to you. and then use it to hold twochocolate bars joined together for the tree trunk towards the back of the house. you canput it where you want, i just wanted mine at the back. and a t the back make a circle section aswell, so leave a little down area for the pond if you want one of those too. so moundit up around the side and leave it in the middle. for the tree, make a big mound forthe top of it and then smaller bits to go

underneath so that it isn't totally flat onthe bottom. on the single story part of the house, addsome growing up the side of the wall like it's ivy and you can make it go up and aroundthe window if you want. you can make it as crazy as you like. take some milk chocolate and add it alongthe edge of the board and the garden all the way around. then take some coconut and addgreen food colouring to make it look like grass. add chocolate over the rest of thearea and then sprinkle the coconut over the top to give a nice green grass area. take some more chocolate and pipe it messilyup and down the chocolate bar so it looks

like bark. you can extend it down a bit tomake it look like it's roots going into the grass as well as you want.colour some white chocolate with oil-based food colouring or you could use coloured royalicing for this instead. and cover the tree parts completely. also use it to cover the ivy that is growingon the side of the house. and i'm just using a clean paintbrush and just brushing it on.with the ivy section, once it is starting to set just dab it again with a paintbrushjust to make it a little bit rougher and finer than the tree so it has a different texture. once the top is set turn it over and makean indent for the trunk. then add the smaller

bits to the base so that it has a bit moreof a rounded shape underneath instead of being flat.and add that into place. if you want lights inside put those in now,leaving the cord on the outside of course so we can turn them on and off. you may needto cut a tiny bit off the corner of the door to accommodate the cord coming out and thenjust put the door into place and you can hide that cord under the coconut.in the other half i want to add lots of chocolates instead of lights. i like it when you openup a gingerbread house and it has treats inside. put some chocolate along the entrance andthen add candies of your choice to make the path.

then make some blue jelly or jello just usingthe directions on the packet but only using half of the water that it says. and let itcool to room temperature and then pour it in to the pond. and then to finish it off all you need todo is sprinkle a little bit of icing sugar on it for snow. i like to use a tea strainerto do this because then you really control where it's going and how much you're getting.not that it snows in australia at christmas time but because we see so many movies whereit does at christmas time snow we still kind of associate snowy christmases with a nicechristmas. don't forget to click on the link below foryour chance to win one of the breville stand

mixers or one of the gingerbread house mouldswhich as you know i used to make this one so you can get your own one of those. i'llalso put a link as to where you can buy those if you just want to get one of those as well.special shout out to lisbeth whose birthday it is this week, thankyou for the lovely letterand the gift that you sent me. and if any of you happen to live in melbourne make sureyou click on the link below to find out where you can come and meet me and say hi, i lovemeeting all of you guys, that's one of the highlights in all the things that i do. subscribe to how to cookthat for more cakes,chocolates and desserts . click here to go the youtube channel, here for the recipe forthe gingerbread, here for the clash of clans

cake from last week and here for more gingerbreadhouse recipes. make it a great week and i'll see you allon friday.

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