Gingerbread House

A Christmas classic - and so much better when you've made it yourself. Although quite time consuming, this is surprisingly easy to make (maybe a little harder to construct
aesthetically ;) ) But this is no ordinary gingerbread house - it had 'glass' windows! You can use this same technique in cookies too.
Sorry that this has come after Christmas - but hey, who wants to limit this beauty to one day of the year?! It is great for any celebration or birthday.

Gingerbread House
Prep time:  A few hours + 4 hours cooling
Serves: Makes 1 house and decorations
Cooking temp: Gas 6, 200C
Cooking time: 10 minutes (per batch)

Ingredients
For the gingerbread:
300g unsalted butter
240g dark muscavado sugar
120g golden syrup
720g plain white flour
Just under one tbsp of bicarbonate of soda or baking powder
2 tbsps ground ginger
 10-15 boilded sweets in orange and yellow (though we did use green for our windows)
  
For the icing:
2 large egg whites
450g icing sugar
2 tsp lemon juice  

For the decoration
Large chocolate buttons
Sweets such as silver balls or christmas sugar shapes

You will also need:
A large cake board
Small or medium sized star cutter
Gingerbread man cutter (different sizes are optional)
This template

Method

1. In a small pan, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup until it is just melted (not simmering)
   
2. Meanwhile, sift the  flour, baking powder and ginger together in  a large mixing bowl and combine. Make a well in the centre.
   
3. Pour in the hot butter mixture and mix with a wooden spoon. When it is cold enough to handle, knead into a stiff (not sticky) dough.
   
4. Preheat the oven to gas 6/ 200C, and line a large baking sheet with parchment. In total, you will need 3 baking sheets - you can do this all at once, or do batches (you can be rolling out the next shapes whilst the first are baking).
5. Lay out a sheet of greaseproof baking paper on a clean surface. Weigh the ball of dough and divide into 5 equal sized balls. Then, divide one into two halves so you have six pieces in total.
   
6. Roll out one of the larger balls until it is 1/2 to 3/4 cm thick. roll it to a rough rectangle the same shape as the roof. Cut out the 'Roof' Template (see link) and place on the gingerbread. Use a knife to cut around the edges. (Keep the offcuts) Repeat this again for the other side of the roof.
   
7. Slide the gingerbread onto the baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes, turning the tray around half way. When you take them out the oven, they may have spread so you can cut the edges to make them straight again. Then, lift onto a wire rack to cool completely (Be careful as they may be too soft to handle for the first few minutes, you don't want them breaking)
8. Whilst the roof is baking, roll out the two small balls and make the sides pieces in the same way. Cut out and keep the window shapes. 
   
9. In a mortar and pestle, bread down the boiled sweets to a sandy consistency.
   
10. Bake the sides and window shapes for 7 minutes, then remove from the oven and sprinkle a good amount of the sweet powder into each window space (enough so you can't see the sheet below). Return to the oven, the other way around, for another 3-4 minutes, until the sweets are molten.
    
    
    
11. While the sides are cooling, cut each window piece in half. After a few minutes, the 'stained glass' should be solid enough to lift. Place on the wire rack to cool also.
12. OK, you get it - roll out the last two balls to form the back and front of the house (depending on the size of your oven they may have to bake sperately). Use a star cutter to cut out the central window, and cut the lower windows out (keep - you can decorate the star offcut sperately if you want). On one side, cut out a door. 
13. Using all the offcuts, roll and cut out the chimney pieces, trees, and small right-angled triangle supports for the trees. With any leftovers you can make other shapes, such as the gingerbread men or more stars.
    
14. Bake for seven minutes, sprinkle the boiled sweets, and bake for another 3. Cut these window pieces in half too.
15. Phew. The easy bit is done. You may have something like this:
    

Assembly

1. When all the pieces are cooled completely,  you can decorate them. In a large bowl, whisk up the egg whites until frothy, then add the baking powder a tbale spoonful at a time. (You may want to use an electric whisk, it gets quite thick). Continue to whisk until you have a smooth, thick icing. Add the lemon juice.
   
2. Using a small or medium sized plain piping nozzle, pipe deocrations around the windows and walls (we just used teaspoons, hehe). You can deocrate with sweets or leave it nicely iced for a more professional effect (we chose sweets, of course =D )

   

   Warning: very messy!!

   
3. Using your window-halves, make shutters and fit to either side of each window.
4. For the roofs, tile on the chocolate buttons, overlapping each one - we did a stripey effect with white chocolate too. Stick on using small blobs of icing, and leave to dry.
   
5. By piping down the side pieces, assemble the chimney.
6. Spread a generous amount of icing over the base of the cake board, in the rough shape of the house. 
7. Stand up the front on the icing and pipe a line down either side, then assemble the walls on either side. (you may have to hold it together here for a bit). Pipe along the last two edges and add the back of the house. Stand the door ajar.
   
8. Leave the house to dry for at least 4 hours, or better overnight. Meanwile you can decorate and assemble the trees and the people around. (stick your triangles on the back of the trees)
   
9. Add the roof pieces and the chimney, piping along the slanted edges of the back and front.