OVERVIEW

Next week is our super-popular Gingerbread House project. Artists love to show off their expertise and everyone loves making these.

There are 3 things you need to be working on right now, so you’re ready to do this.

1. HOUSE: Send an email to parents asking for milk cartons and cardboard
2. ICING: Purchase meringue powder and sugar. Line up a really good mixer to use.
3. CANDY: Ask for candy in the email, and be prepared for creating a “candy store”

How to do it!

1. HOUSE

Send an email. Use our email template below to copy and paste into your emails to parents. Just drag from the top of the headline down to the bottom of the email and use copy (command-c or control-c) and then create your emails and paste (command-v or control-v) into the email. Personalize the copy and then send to your list.

Print our PDF. It’s good to have a handout that you can send home. That’s further below too.

Inspire the class. The best way to get things, though, is to make sure the students are really excited about the project. Tell them all about the things they need to bring and that it’s their responsibility (not their parents’), to make sure they bring the 2 items for the HOUSE, and a bag or two of hard candy.

2. ICING

Buy Meringue Powder. Get this online (use the red button below), or find at Walmart and baking supply shops. You’ll have to figure out how much you need, depending on the number of students you have. Here are the instructions from the Wilton brand label (we always use this brand).

3 tablespoons Wilton Meringue Powder, 4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (about 1lb), and 5 tablespoons water In large bowl, beat all ingredients at medium speed of stand mixer until icing forms peaks and loses its sheen, 7-10 minutes. If using a hand mixer, beat at high speed 10-12 minutes. If peaks are not forming, increase the mixer speed and continue to beat. To prevent drying, cover bowl with damp cloth while working with icing. Makes about 2 ¾ cups of icing Product packed by dry weight. Contents may settle. After opening, store in a cool dry place. No refrigeration required.

So, you can expect to get around 3 to 4 houses per batch. There are 10 batches in an 8 oz. carton of powder. You can also buy this in 16 oz cans, which we do. We’ll make batches for use the same day, but in a pinch you can use them the following day too, if you put it into a gallon freezer ziplock bag.

We always transfer to bags, because it keeps well, and you can snip a corner off to fill cups with icing. Instructions for making icing and doing all this is in the main lesson.

Amazon Link for 8 oz. Wilton Meringue powder: 

3. CANDY

We ask everyone to bring a couple of bags of the candies/pretzels/marshmallows/etc. Then we create a huge “store” where all the candy is arranged in bins and students can fill disposable bowls for decorating their houses. A stack of large disposable aluminum basting pans works great, and you can find these at Costco pretty cost-effectively.

It’s crazy. Yes. But so much fun!

Get Ready For Our Gingerbread House Project!

Here’s what to bring next week.

1. One 7″ or 8″ square of flat and sturdy, corrugated cardboard
2. One top of a milk or juice paper carton. Cut in half. Throw away the bottom. Wash out the inside of the top. It will be the “house” that we cover in icing.
3. Two bags of candy (or other things in the list below). Candy needs to be PEANUT FREE (no M&Ms), and hard or chewy.
   1. Lifesavers
   2. Licorice strips
   3. Jellies and gumdrops
   4. Mints
   5. Old fashioned hard candies
   6. Hard candies of any kind
   7. Candy canes
   8. Marshmallows
   9. Pretzels

Please don’t bring things that are not on this list. Thanks.

Here is a carton. CUT IT IN HALF, AND CLEAN WITH SOAP! Bring the top half, which looks like a house.