LOVE GINGERBREAD? Join my Facebook Group, “Gingerbread Tips & Tricks”, where I post tutorials and videos for different techniques. It’s a great community of people talking about gingerbread! Share your project photos, ask questions, make suggestions, and laugh a little!
This year’s gingerbread house was a mountain chalet. One of Santa’s vacation homes. I even added fun embellishments like reindeer in a stable and a sleigh. I decided to do a stable so it would appear that the reindeer were inside with their heads sticking out.
Materials:
Pretzels
I rolled my gingerbread into balls and pinched one end of each piece until I had the shape I wanted.
I baked them on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees until they were firm.
I let them fully cool while I rolled some white, black and red fondant pieces.
I rolled two small balls of white fondant for each head and flattened them between my fingers. I dabbed a small amount of tylose glue onto them to secure the eyes.
Then I rolled two smaller balls of black fondant for each head, flattened them, and used a small dab of water to secure the black fondant to the white fondant.
I rolled some more balls of black fondant for the reindeer noses. I shaped them into loose triangles with rounded edges and secured them to the gingerbread heads with some tylose glue.
For the antlers, I cut some pretzels in half down the center with a knife.
I carved some holes in the sides of the heads and used tylose glue to attach the pretzels. This was the hardest part and some of the gingerbread crumbled a little. Next time I think I will either insert the pretzels before baking the gingerbread or poke the holes while the gingerbread is still warm and soft from the oven.
I made nine reindeer. For one of them I did roll a small ball of red fondant and use it as Rudolph’s nose.
I shaped some gingerbread into the body of a sitting reindeer and baked it like I did the heads. I knew I wanted Rudolph to be guarding the sleigh instead of hanging in the stable with the other reindeer.
The body looked a little weird, but when I glued the head on and stuck him behind the main house, he actually looked kinda cute.
I made the stable with gingerbread. I rolled it out and baked it to look like logs. The windows were made with fondant, and the reindeer heads were attached with royal icing. See the full post here.
The final product was super fun! I even added a few fondant carrots for the reindeer to snack on. Christmas rocks!
Other Cake Decorating and Gingerbread Posts:
Construction Grade Gingerbread Recipe (for building, not eating)
Gingerbread Recipe (for eating and building)
Reindeer Playing Poker – National Gingerbread House Competition 3rd Place Winner
Santa’s Gingerbread Mountain Chalet
Cardinal Family Christmas – Gingerbread Birdhouse
Gingerbread House Construction Tips
In some instances, I may include affiliate links in posts where I recommend specific products. If you purchase something through one of my affiliate links, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These links are always disclosed.