Last year Miss E and I started a new tradition of making a gingerbread train from a kit. This year I thought we would graduate to making a gingerbread house. The cute little kit was purchased from IKEA and we needed to supply the candies for the house and the frosting to hold it all together.
No problem.
The candies were saved from Halloween: JellyBellies, Smarties, gummy shapes and colorful gumballs. ABC cookies were purchased recently.
The problem was how to make the Royal Icing to "glue" all the pieces together and hold the candies in place. I found a recipe online that didn't call for egg white powder; egg whites would work just fine. We donned our aprons and got to work. Miss E wanted to crack the egg and whip the rest of the ingredients together. All seemed to be going according to the recipe but the mixture never got stiff! What was the problem???
Think. Think. Think.
MISTAKE #1:
We forgot to separate the egg white from the yolk! Maybe it would work as frosting, but the house would never hold together with this goop mess. Glue gun to the rescue.
MISTAKE #2:
Using a glue gun is not appropriate for a three year old. She handed me the pieces of the house and the hot glue hardened in front of our eyes leaving gaps galore in this gingerbread house construction.
CORRECTION #1:
Go back and make the Royal Icing the right way and glop it all over the gingerbread house.
The Recipe
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/8 t. cream of tartar
1 egg white BEATEN
In bowl, sift together sugar and cream of tartar. Beat in the pre-beaten egg white.
It will take about 5 minutes to reach the desired thickness to work on the gingerbread house as glue.
CORRECTION #2:
No need to use a glue gun when you make the Icing as directed --- this stuff is great!
Ready to see the finished product? It was quite a success!
Wishing you success in your holiday food preps!
(Remember to follow instructions the first time.)
No comments:
Post a Comment