Wednesday, December 17, 2014

GINGERBREAD VILLAGE FOR ALZHEIMER'S IDAHO CHRISTMAS GATHERING

Last Friday night was the Christmas gathering for the Alzheimer's Idaho (local grassroots organization) support group.  I wanted to something a little special for these wonderful caregivers besides their normal dessert.
 I love this gingerbread mix and I used two of these and had enough to make the large  house and the two little ones.
Both of these pans are made by Nordic Ware.  I found the one that makes two houses on big time sale after Christmas last year and have had the other for years.
I am not a big fan of fondant but there are times (like this) when you need to use this product and when I do this is my favorite boxed fondant - available at Michael's and Hobby Lobby.
 Started with hubby cutting out a piece of hardboard and then I rolled out fondant and covered the board - remember everything has to be edible (except the board).  I next made a batch of royal icing to use as "glue."
Using royal icing "glued" the houses to the fondant. I did the peppermint stick "fence" last, it is just sitting on the fondant here to make sure that I liked the look. The little houses and the gingerbread men are from the $ store - I removed the blue from the men and replaced with the heart red hots and covered the houses with candy, covering the blue on them as I wanted this to be as red and white as possible.
The rest of the job is using the piping bag (with the royal icing) to outline your houses and then adding the candy, then a dusting of powdered sugar.  I used the crushed peppermint to cover the frosting that adhered the gingerbread to the fondant. This is a fun project - no right or wrong, just have fun.

This gingerbread village actually did double duty as it traveled to the hostesses Sunday school class last Sunday and I am told they just dug in and had the best time eating houses and candy.  As the creator of this little village nothing could have made me any happier.

Resource

Cake pans, at specialty stores and Amazon.com
Candy, $store, grocery store, Trader Joe's for the smaller starlight peppermints, they can be hard to find, bagged Christmas candy used on the roofs of the small houses, Hammond's Candy CO available at Cost Plus, I just kept looking and gathering candy thinking about this little village.
Fondant, speciality stores, Hobby Lobby & Michael's and online.

Thank you for stopping by.



2 comments:

  1. AMAZING DOESN'T SAY ENOUGH FOR WHAT YOU DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    BEYOND BELIEF ALL THE WORK THAT WENT INTO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
    NO ONE, NO ONE, COMPARES TO YOU, NOT EVEN, WHAT'S HER NAME,
    MARTHA SOMETHING. YOU ARE WAY BEYOND HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  2. You are too kind Anonymous. This little village was a labor of love for these caregivers (Angels on earth) & I was thrilled that my friend's Sunday school class tore it apart & ate themselves silly🎄❤️🎄

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