How to Build a Gingerbread House Review
October 21, 2009 by Katelyn Thomas
Filed under Home & Living
I recently received a copy of How to Build a Gingerbread House by Christina Banner to review. This book is billed as a step by step guide to sweet results. Since the book tells you how to make dyed coconut grass for the ground, sugar cookie shingles for the roof and everything in between, I think it is entitled to make that claim.
Photo via Amazon.com
The entire first two sections of the book are about the basics of making a gingerbread house, from baking the walls and making your icing glue to creating a proper base for your masterpiece. I found the photos to be particularly helpful. Do you know how many times a meringue or icing recipe tells you to beat something until it forms a peak? Well, you can actually see a picture of a proper peak on page 14. I’ve apparently been doing it wrong for the past …um never mind how many years… because I thought I was looking for stiff icing in the bowl, not on an upside down beater. Good to know, right? I just loved looking through all the ideas for window and roof options, too. I never would have considered using gum as shingles, but it looks fabulous. I do wish some of the ideas for the decorations would have had more photos to illustrate the steps and that these photos would have been a bit bigger, but I was still able to understand what was going on.
The third part of the book is the fun part – eight whimsical designs to copy or to use to help you get ideas to make your own designs. These designs are perfect for people who are making a first, second, or even third gingerbread house. They are designed so that they can be easily constructed by gingerbread newbies, but still have some personality and cute details. (For someone who has mastered the art of making a simple house, this book may be a bit too basic, but, as someone who has only created houses from those kits with the cracker hard gingerbread walls, I found it to be just perfect.)
Still need help? Christina Banner also has a website about the book that includes a recipe and additional hints.
About the Book:
How to Build a Gingerbread House
Author: Christina Banner
Publisher: Penny Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9815806-0-9
Price: $24.95
