Gingerbread city living

For those who are urbanites to the core, our gingerbread inner-city terrace houses celebrates city living. Our gingerbread jungle is where dreams are made.

Gingerbread city living Credit: China Squirrel

• makes

  1

• prep

  3 hours

• cook

  1 hour

• difficulty

  Mid

Download your free gingerbread city living template here.

Print out at A3 size, landscape orientation. (Sarah Hankinson) Source: Undefined / Sarah Hankinson

Ingredients

Gingerbread dough

• 550 g (3¾ cups) plain flour
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 185 g unsalted butter, softened
• 165 g (¾ cup) brown sugar
• 180 ml (⅔ cup) golden syrup
• 2 egg yolks

Royal icing

• 1 eggwhite
• 225 g (1½ cups) pure icing sugar (about), sifted

Chilling time 15 minutes

Freezing time 50 minutes

Resting time 4.5 hours (for icing to set)

Instructions

Gingerbread dough

1. Cut out the city living template (above).
2. Sift the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl.
3. Place butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until light and creamy, about 4 minutes. Add golden syrup and egg yolks and beat until well combined.
4. Add flour mixture and beat until mixture forms soft dough.
5. Turn onto a floured surface and knead to a smooth dough. Divide dough into 2, flatten each into a disc shape, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

To make the gingerbread houses

6. Working in batches, roll a disc of dough between 2 sheets of baking paper to 4 mm thickness. Transfer dough and paper to a tray and freeze for 15 minutes.
7. Remove from freezer and slide the dough with the paper onto a workbench. Peel off the top sheet of baking paper. Place templates onto dough and cut around using a sharp knife (image 1).
8. Remove from freezer, remove the dough trimmings from edges, reserve and wrap in plastic and refrigerate.
9. Repeat with remaining dough, combining with the reserved trimmings, until you have 6 pieces to make the tall house (1 front, 1 back, 2 sides and 2 roof sections), and 12 pieces to make 2 small houses (2 fronts, 2 backs, 4 sides and 4 roof sections).
10. Return cut gingerbread pieces to freezer until ready to bake.

 

Baking

11. Preheat oven to 180ºC. Line 6 baking trays with baking paper.
12. Place cut gingerbread pieces onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, allowing a little room for spreading. It’s best to place similar-sized pieces of dough onto the same tray as these will bake at about the same time. You will probably need to bake in batches, depending on the size of your oven. (Working with one at a time makes it easy to be able to trim each piece successfully after it’s baked).
13. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden. (Smaller pieces of dough will take less cooking time).
14. Working quickly and one tray at a time, transfer the cooked gingerbread pieces (on it’s baking paper) to a wooden board or bench top, place the matching paper template onto the hot baked gingerbread piece; and carefully use a small sharp knife to trim around template (image 2). Remove or eat cooked trimmings. If gingerbread becomes too hard while you are trimming, simply return to oven for 1 minute. Return gingerbread onto the hot baking tray and allow to cool completely on the tray. Repeat until you have baked and trimmed all gingerbread sections.  

 

To decorate the houses

15. To make the royal icing, place eggwhites into a medium mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat until foamy. Gradually beat in icing sugar until you have a very stiff paste.
16. To decorate, spoon ¼ cup of the icing into a small piping bag fitted with a 2 mm plain nozzle. Cover remaining icing with plastic wrap and a damp tea towel (see Note).
17. Pipe windows and doors onto front sections of houses, then decorate remaining sections, as you desire (image 3).
18. Allow icing to set for 30 minutes.

 

To assemble the houses

19. Think of the icing as glue or "mortar" (i.e. use plenty). Spoon some icing into a medium piping bag fitter with a 5 mm star nozzle.
20. Start with the front, back and side walls of the tall house (see Note). Pipe plenty of icing along side edges of the house back wall, then fix the adjoining side walls to it. Do the same with the front of the house, carefully fixing it to the side walls. Use cans or whatever you have in your pantry to secure the wall upright (image 4). Allow to set for about 2 hours or until icing is hard.
21. Repeat to make the 2 small houses. Return icing to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a damp tea towel (see Note). 
22. For the tall house, once the walls are set, working with one side at a time, pipe plenty of icing along all the top edges of the walls (where the roof will attach to). Carefully place the roof in place, using cans or whatever you have in your pantry to secure the roof in place. Pipe a line of icing along the top centre of house (between the 2 roof sections). Repeat on other side. Allow all icing to set firm, about 2 hours.
23. Repeat for the 2 small houses. Allow all icing to set firm, about 2 hours.

 

We decorated our cityscape with a plastic tree, toy car and tiny plastic people.

Baker’s notes

• Between assembling of the houses, return the royal icing to a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap and a damp tea towel or place in a tightly sealed plastic container to prevent icing from drying out. Rinse piping nozzle and bag (or use disposable piping bags).

• We have chosen to not fix the houses to a chopping board or cake board so we could move them around on the cityscape. If you prefer to have your houses fixed, pipe plenty of icing around edge and side of the back wall, then fix to a chopping board or cake board, use cans or whatever you have in your pantry to secure the wall upright, do the same with the next adjoining wall until you have built the 4 walls of the house. Allow to set for about 2 hours or until icing is hard, then proceed with the next step.

Photography, styling and food preparation by China Squirrel. Illustrated template by Sarah Hankinson from The Ilustration Room. Creative concept by Belinda So.

This city is part of our Gingerbread Houses of the World collection. View the other houses here.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

Download your free gingerbread city living template here.

Print out at A3 size, landscape orientation. (Sarah Hankinson) Source: Undefined / Sarah Hankinson