The house that nearly wasn't.

Howdy festive people. I made a gingerbread house this week. Yup, i did.

However, i made the mistake of starting this construction with a little bit of a hangover. Lesson learned. Never make gingerbread houses when feeling a bit delicate. It will not end well.

It all started easily enough. Gingerbread mixed and baked.

I decided to make up my own template for the house shape this year rather than use the one we printed off the internet last year. This worked well and i rolled out the gingerbread, cut out the shapes for the house parts and then baked them.

Once they were out the oven i then went over them again with the template and cut clean lines where they had blurred a bit due to spreading in the oven.

All i had to then do is construct the thing. I made the egg white icing (you use egg whites as it dries like glue) and started building the house.

This is where it all went wrong. The walls glued together, but no matter how hard i tried the roof would not stay on.

I kept on with it, making a big mess. At one point the whole thing collaped and i thought the house was a goner. I nearly gave up on the whole thing.

But i really really wanted to make the house (and i had already invested three hours) so i presisted. I wanted my festive little house to sit on my dining table looking all lovely and Christmassy.

The wall had bowed a little at this point but the roof was finally on. Yay! I crossed my fingers and left it to dry.

And luckily it made it. The walls were a little crooked and it was not the prettiest thing in the world but i am happy. Plus the whole house smells of Christmas, yummy.

I bought lots and lots (and lots) of decotations and hide the damage. Chocolate fingers were used to help the walls stay up (and to give a log cabin effect!) an the whole thing was covered in glitter.

And i love it! It won't win any awards for prettiness but it will be delicious to eat. I think it was a lot easier last year as Lawrence made it with me and you need two pairs of hands (that's my story anyway, nothing to do with the cocktails the night before).

What do you think? Do you like it? I hope you do. Are you making a gingerbread house this year? If so, i'd love to see it!