If you’ve got some free time today or tomorrow then this is a special and fun project made with organic goods, and beautiful lines, much like Kaufmann’s real homes were.

If you don’t have quite so much free time on your hands than some good, and still gingery cooking projects include…

• Organic ginger snap cookies
• Vegan Honeypot Ginger Cookie
• Organic Gingerbread
• Vegan Chocolate Pumpkin Gingerbread
• Apple and Ginger Cake – use organic apples!

PS – if you’re interested in seeing those kooky gingerbread homes I mentioned, then no worries, because I’ve gathered them up below. You will be blown away by these tiny structures so take a look!

• The World’s Best Offbeat Gingerbread Homes
• Offbeat Gingerbread Homes 2008 – Part One
• Offbeat Gingerbread Homes 2008 – Part Two

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Bake an Organic Gingerbread Lotus House

Gingerbread house image: sxc.hu

What fun the youngsters had!

They colored decorative motifs the teacher had copied for them.  Then I stuffed brown paper bags with crumpled newspaper, folded down the top (after cutting off a strip so it wouldn’t be so bulky), and stapling it shut.  The youngsters glued on their decorations (doors, windows, snowflakes, border strips, etc.).  Some cut the doors so they would open and decorated inside, too, after pushing some of the crumpled paper aside.  Others added decorations to the bags with colored markers.

For making cookie type gingerbread houses, you can purchase kits, as my daughter often has for her children.  What fun they had putting these together and decorating them, creating Christmas memories in the process.

To make gingerbread houses “from scratch,” you may want to see if you can find a copy of Gingerbread Houses for Kids by Jennifer Ericsson , a wonderful how-to book for making these creations, with easy instructions for youngsters.

What are your gingerbread house memories?

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The Wonderful World of Gingerbread Houses

This is a pretty basic contest – contestants must apply sustainable features to an edible gingerbread home. Each house must have at least 4 identifiable green home attributes and the whole darn house must be edible.

Last year’s winning house:

As you can see, last year’s winner had oodles of sustainable design aspects. You can see many more cool eco-homes at the BFAC2007 entries site.

You can enter the Bake for A Change contest up until Midnight PST, December 31, 2008. If you enter let me know – and good luck.

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Eco Gingerbread Contest

This gingerbread home, from Rock Recipes is not that offbeat, but I like it anyhow, and am especially impressed that it lights up.

The details on this lighted gingerbread home are extraordinary – see many close-ups here.

Will Alsop’s gingerbread version of Peckham Library in London via Gingerbread architecture at livee by architecture. PS no, livee is not a typo.

Modern ranch gingerbread house from abh75 – totally cute and simple. The glass around the door is an excellent touch.

A gingerbread Moomin house from Axis of Ævil – not sure what a Moomin is (prob some game/tech/oddball toy or character I haven’t heard of) BUT the house is extra adorable and unique, complete with shooting star!

And in risky gingerbread news, something I’m not sure I should post here, being that I myself and this blog are not exactly criminal, but still, I think you should check it out – Gingerbread Ghetto. This is not gingerbread architecture for the faint of heart, but some of the structures are pretty darn funny.

Bonus gingerbread: click here to see a gingerbread surprise that the kids will like.

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Offbeat Gingerbread Homes 2008 – Part Two

One of Offbeat’s favorite gals, Michelle Kaufmann has a killer (and gorgeous) template plus recipe posted that teaches you how to make your very own organic GingerLotus. Not quite as livable as the the mkLotus, unless you happen to be made out of sugary dough, but very cool.

Last year’s Gingerbread Village at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel featured many amazing edible homes. From Bay Area’s KMD Architects there was the beautiful “Chinese New Year”:

DLR Group managed a gravity defying “Planet Holidays”:

You can see and read about many more Gingerbread Village Houses in Constructing Christmas from The Stranger.

If you want to make your own mod gingerbread home, without all the fuss, snag yourself the personalizable modern gingerbread house from red envelope.

Cool for a kit, but I bet if you tried to make your own, it’d be even neater.

Stay tuned, because I’ve got more offbeat gingerbread homes coming up and the goods on a unique gingerbread contest you may enjoy entering.

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Offbeat Gingerbread Homes 2008 – Part One

This Classic Offbeat Homes: Holiday Lights Video is where we’ll start, because it’s one of my favorite offbeat Christmas posts -totally bizarre.

I’m also a fan of The World’s Best Offbeat Gingerbread Homes. Honestly, how could I not be, with cool stuff like this:

Offbeat Christmas Trees for Offbeat Homes

How to build an offbeat Christmas structure in two easy steps – how’s that for a long title? Worth a click though; it’s not often you get to see the words, duck, house, and Christmas lights all in the same post.

And the prize for largest electric bill goes to….

The Christmas Story house!

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Offbeat Winter Holiday Kick Off

Fact: You may be thinking, “Has Jennifer gone plum crazy! Gingerbread home making season is a ways off.” However, these are not run of the mill, graham cracker and frosting homes. These require thought and early planning. If you want better than blah come the winter holiday season, hit the drawing board now.

These will give you some inspiration.

The best of the best gingerbread homes that I have ever seen come via Gizmodo. One of the most beautiful shiny gadget blogs in town. This may seem odd but a few years back at Christmas time they had the best ever build an edible Gizmodo-House contest. I think they gave a TV to the winner. These are so amazing you’ll faint.

A dome home of which you can see the building process right here.

I LOVE this next one. It’s a winner just based on pure wit alone.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! My son would love to make this one.

Now, it was hard to just show three — there’s lots more to see so head over to Gizmodo.

Next up my friend Marye over at Baking Delights loves two things (ok lots of things) but she does adore baking and her eight; yup EIGHT kids quite a bit. So, while she’s not old, I’d still say that this is her perfect home.

Below is the 2006 grand prize winner at The National Gingerbread House Competition at The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa. It’s easy to see why it won. It looks like someone carved it — out of a large pine cone. Just amazing.

Chef Danielle Macatugob is somewhat incredible. She built this 18 foot gingerbread masterpiece. It doesn’t look like real gingerbread to me but her credentials at her website lead me to believe it.

More of a bridge than a home but still cool; this one is from the annual Seattle show at City Centre Mall via Cynical-C Blog.

I want to live here. I don’t care if it’s made of gingerbread. I am moving in; it reminds me of Red Lodge, Montana. It was made by a genius fellow; Max Kitano of Sugarworks, LLC. Visit his site and prepare to be astounded.

Doesn’t it look all cozy.

This home is not too offbeat design wise; except that it’s HUGE! This is a basic almost life size home at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort. I read that it takes 1,050 pounds of honey, 600 pounds of powered sugar, 800 pounds of flour, 140 pints of egg whites and 180 pounds of apricot glaze. Wow.

Modern gingerbread home by architect Johnson Chou via TreeHugger. Nothing like a little prefab to get the kids excited about the holidays.

This is not big or glamorous or wacky but is very neat: The Green Gingerbread House! The kind I suggest you all build this holiday season. It was created based on an idea by staff in Cornell’s Environmental Compliance Office and, “The building sports eco-friendly features galore: high-efficiency plumbing fixtures, solar panels, a wind turbine, a “carbon negative” annual energy profile and a yard filled with native and endangered plants … and more.”

Look at the little clothesline! If I make one this year I’m trying this. You could really go all out.

Last but not least… one of my favorite gingerbread set-ups I’ve ever seen. Not exactly one house; but an entire farm stand and town winter wonderland. It sparkles! It must have taken forever.

With the holiday season coming up quick I hope that some of these inspired you to add an extra dash of spice to your own gingerbread creations this year.

How many of you are building gingerbread homes this year?

Don’t forget about our fun October month long contest. It’s happening now… Are you playing along?

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The World’s Best Offbeat Gingerbread Homes