Gingerbread

Every year we decorate gingerbread. I let my kids pick out whichever pre-baked kit they want, because I tried doing the whole thing from scratch one year and swore I'd never do it again. You need a degree in engineering or architecture or something. Besides, since the kits include EVERYTHING you need and are only around $10 each, there's no way you could buy all the ingredients and other supplies for less than that. Sometimes we wait until Christmas Eve to do them, but this year we got an early start. In the past, we've had a house and a tree, but this year the store only had house kits left.

The gingerbread house pieces come shrink-wrapped to a board and enclosed in bubble wrap so they stay intact. You can use this board as the base to assemble your house. There is also slightly bigger cardboard inside the box, and I prefer to use that. I like to wrap it in freezer paper so it's white, and since the surface it slick, it's also easy to keep clean. The house consists of a front and back (the peaked walls), 2 short side walls, and 2 larger roof pieces.

  

The powered icing mix is super easy; all you do is add water. It's very similar to royal icing, only it tastes better and still dries very hard. Please be careful not to add too much water. The instructions say to use 5 tablespoons of warm water, and you may need to add more, especially if young hands are having to squeeze it out of a piping bag, but only add a little at a time. The icing won't be fluffy like buttercream, and it dries out very quickly, so keep it covered with a damp paper towel when not in use. That includes icing in a piping bag! You don't want it to dry in there and clog your tip.

  

You'll need to assemble the house and allow the icing to dry completely before decorating it. I find it easiest to pipe the icing along the gingerbread edges--sides and bottom--and then hold them in place until the icing starts to dry and they can stand up on their own.

  

 Once one peaked and one side wall are secure, you can add the others.

 

I like to add extra icing to the inside corners and bottom edges for reinforcement. I then take a spatula and tidy up the exterior seams and bottom edges by scraping off any excess icing that may have oozed out.

 

Once the walls are put together, it's a good idea to leave them for an hour or so before adding the roof. This makes sure the icing is dry and the whole thing is stable before adding weight to the top. When the icing holding the roof in place it totally dry, it's time to decorate!

  

This year, I bought some candy molds to make accessories for the houses like a welcome mat, windows, shutters, a door, landscaping, fence pieces, and chimney. I'm a sucker for cool candy molds, and candy melts are so easy to use, and available pre-colored. Of course, they're not "proper" chocolate, but you don't have to worry about tempering. Just melt and mold.

There are several different ways you can make candy using molds. I like to put the melts in a plastic disposable piping bag then zap the whole thing in the microwave until melted. I do intervals of 20 seconds, kneading the bag in between to help them melt evenly.

 

Then I snip off the bottom and squeeze the melted candy into the mold. To make multi-colored pieces, layer the candy by doing the front colors first, allow that to set, then add in any additional colors. Alternatively, if the accents are really small, you can use a small (food-safe) paint brush to apply the melted candy to the mold.

The candy pieces will set up faster if you let them chill in the refrigerator, and then they'll just pop right out of the molds. You can then attach them to the gingerbread with icing or melted candy.

 

For the chimney, I found it easier to use melted candy to assemble the 4 sides of it first, then stick it on the roof.

 

Here are the finished gingerbread houses. Just so you know, all I really did was help with the assembly and mold the candy pieces. My kids did the rest.

 

Cupcake Cuties Save the (Birth)Day

I've had a run of bad luck in the kitchen lately, culminating in my most recent disaster. In fact, I'd rather just forget all about it and never mention it again. Except that it was meant to be a birthday cake, and, as usual, I waited until the last minute so I didn't have a backup plan, and time was running out.

As luck would have it, I agreed to do a product review for Cupcake Cuties, and it just so happens that the kit arrived literally within minutes of me realizing the birthday cake was yet another kitchen fail. Wow, talk about perfect timing! Now all I had to do was bake a quick batch of cupcakes and then decorate them with the kit! How insanely awesome is that?

           

I love getting packages, and I couldn't wait to open it up and see what they sent me. I didn't request a specific kit, but nearly all of the Cupcake Cuties kits are pretty much gender-neutral, which is handy.

      

As you can see, the kit comes packaged in an adorable plastic box. The picture on the front indicates which kit is inside. I received the Layered Cake Kit, which is perfect for a birthday. The only way to see what's actually in the box is to peek at the bottom. Still, that wasn't really good enough for me, so I went ahead and unpacked it all on the spot. I took pictures, too.

     

Everything is safely tucked away underneath pink tissue. Included in the kit is all you need to make the design shown on the front of the box, except for the cupcakes themselves and icing. This is great for anyone with dietary restrictions because you can use this kit with any cupcake and icing recipe.

   

The Layered Cake Cupcake Cuties kit includes: a bottle of pastel sprinkles, 24 candles, 24 decorative sleeves that go around the outside of the baking cup, and detailed instructions. The sleeves are self-adhesive, so there's no fuss or mess. Just peel off the backing, wrap them around the sides of your cupcakes, and stick the ends together. Super easy!

Before and after.

One thing I'd like to note is that the adhesive, once attached, stays attached. I found this out the hard way when I wasn't paying attention and put a few sleeves on upside-down. I tried to fix one, but I ended up tearing it and had to reattach it with scotch tape, so I didn't attempt to change the others.

Note thumb marks on edge, grrr.

The instructions say to frost the cupcake first, then wrap the sleeve around it. I tried doing it that way, but I kept messing up the icing on the edge of the cupcake, which was frustrating. So I wrapped the sleeves around the cupcakes first. I'm a rebel that way.

I like to use a 1M tip and piping bag to ice cupcakes, but a few of these were iced using just a disposable piping bag and no tip, so those have smooth tops. Once the icing is on, it's a good idea to go ahead and add the sprinkles. They'll stick better to fresh icing. Then, just place the candle in the middle, and that's all there is to it. This is a great activity to share with the whole family. Everyone can help!

  

I realize that technically these are supposed to have chocolate icing, as per the picture and instructions to match the paper sleeve. But nobody here wanted wanted chocolate icing. Unanimously, it had to be vanilla, so that's what I made.

 

By the way, the sprinkles included in the kit are pastel confetti, which is great for general use, and there are plenty. As you can see, there's still most of the bottle left after decorating all 24 cupcakes. But what I really love is the flip-top lid. There are 2 sides: one for pouring, and one for shaking, depending on the need. Very cool.

 

We had a lot of fun with this Cupcake Cuties kit, and I am very pleased with the results. It was quick, easy, everybody got to participate, and it saved me from having to make another birthday cake!

I received this Cupcake Cuties Kit for free in exchange for my honest review.