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This just in, more photos from the guest bloggers, some 'famous' gingerbread houses they made...


Some friends made gingerbread houses and I volunteered to post them. They even wrote the text. Hopefully they will send better quality pictures but for now these are the ones.

Gingerbread house baking & decorating is a week-long ordeal - - I mean, process. Gingerbread dough deviates from other cookies in that there are no eggs used. Instead, molasses and ginger take center stage. After making the brown stuff, it is pressed into a mold – two molds make one house. The manufacturer recommends baking the dough one at a time in the mold, but we have refined the carpentry by using and re-using aluminum foil which accelerates baking, hardening, and cooling. Once the four walls and two rooftops have been constructed, all are adhesed with Royal Icing (egg-whites, powdered sugar, Cream of Tarter). The unit is then cemented onto a cardboard foundation and ready for decorating.



A big party ensues whereby tract housing becomes the springboard for sugar, chile con queso, sugar, enchiladas, sugar, pigs-in-blankets, sugar, and Chimayo Cocktails. Some essentials for hosting a decorating party are: all candy varieties, all alcohol varieties, and all acquaintance varieties. In tandem with the party is a donation of houses decorated or houses undecorated with icing and candy to any charitable organization. The Ronald McDonald house, the Barrett House shelter for Women and Children, the Storehouse Food Bank, All Faith’s Receiving Home, and the Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless have all been recipients in the past, but this year, Basement Films was chosen this year.



Last year, one of our houses was put on display and remains at the State of New Mexico’s Capitol in the Governor’s Office. Sadly, we don’t have a picture of it as it was encased and slated to put into the Museum of Folk Art and then later turned away as a perishable item. Eric Witt of the Governor’s staff is the current landlord and, with some encouragement, may take a digital pic for later posting… please… Eric?



Gingerbread houses are fun to make and decorate, whether homemade like ours, store-bought or extrapolated from graham crackers and, if you can balance the ratio of candy eaten vs. glued onto a house, you’ve got a perfect centerpiece to dismantle for eating after the holidays.




Not to be outdone we have one of our own. No mold - all free form.