Making Great Gingerbread Houses: Delicious Designs from Cabins to Castles, from Lighthouses to Tree Houses [Paperback]

Aaron Morgan (Author), Paige Gilchrist (Author)

Book Description

This is part pastry art and part architecture modelling, but making gingerbread houses is all winter-holiday and Christmas-time fun! These forty scrumptious-looking projects are perfect for anyone of any age with an urge to bake & decorate. Complete easy-to-follow instructions from an experienced pastry chef, illustrated step-by-photographic-step in full colour.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Miniature houses have an undeniable appeal, especially when they're made out of food. But the architectural achievements in this guide are so charming and sometimes so elaborate that it's hard to imagine actually eating them; they're meant to be admired, not devoured. From rustic to royal, humble to ornate, this eclectic assortment ranges from cooking-school complex to child-simple. Some were even designed by kids and could certainly be constructed by them. (Just be sure to buy extra trimmings, since the budding architects are bound to do some nibbling!)

The authors lay solid groundwork in the introductory section, explaining the key points of gingerbread building, pattern making, and utilizing various types of trimmings, and offer basic recipes for gingerbread dough, royal icing, marzipan, pastillage, and fondant. Then it's on to the structures themselves, contributed by more than four dozen designers. Houses, cabins, inns, chapels, castles, lighthouses, even whole little villages drip with snowy icing, as candies, cookies, and other goodies mimic stone, brick, shingle, stucco, logs, and landscaping. This is not a step-by-step guide but rather a gallery of wonderful ideas, with photos of each creation and some very general suggestions about making them. The photography is not high quality but is adequate enough to show detail, and templates are included for many of the structures. One designer even found an ingenious solution to the edibility dilemma, turning the flat roof of her elaborate Victorian concoction into a serving surface for Christmas cookies. --Amy Handy --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Lark Books (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579902685
• ISBN-13: 978-1579902681
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #323,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ENTER THE INCREDIBLE WORLD OF GINGERBREAD, November 18, 2000

By 

"luv2crop" (Jacksonville, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making Great Gingerbread Houses: Delicious Designs from Cabins to Castles, from Lighthouses to Tree Houses (Hardcover)

I bought this book as part of my research for new decorating ideas for our annual mother-daughter gingerbread house party. Little did I know where it would lead us!! Although the book does not have alot of details on the different aspects such as how to make rounded structures (gingerbread expands when baked so it was very difficult to get a complete rounded structure and there is not much detail given in the book as to how to get around this), it opened up a whole new world for us---marzipan,pastillage, fondant with recipes included. It's the "How to" of making a completely edible structure. The photos are great --most of them are the winners of the annual Gingerbread House competition from 1998. It includes photos of the children's winners as well (youth 10 and under and youth 11-15 categories) which is why some of the houses may seem "messy" for the book---they are true to life works of young artists. Because of this book we entered the 2000 Gingerbread House competition and had a blast. We met and chatted with Aaron Morgan (author of the book) and Trish Weaver 2 time winner of the competition now retired and serving as a judge for the competition. We learned alot and got lots of great ideas. It will be a part of our Christmas traditions. I loved this book and recommend this book for any gingerbread nuts on your list.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Some unique ideas but not enough instructions, November 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Making Great Gingerbread Houses: Delicious Designs from Cabins to Castles, from Lighthouses to Tree Houses (Hardcover)

There are some unique ideas which made the purchase worthwhile. However, the instructions are not very thorough. I also felt that many of the houses could have been more attractive. Some of them were quite "messy". I was also disappointed that there were not any sources listed.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Informative, April 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Making Great Gingerbread Houses: Delicious Designs from Cabins to Castles, from Lighthouses to Tree Houses (Paperback)

I had always wanted to make a gingerbread house but was afraid to try it. I do many different types of crafts but none where the item is made of just food. That seemed too daunting for me.
But when I recieved my copy of "Making Great Gingerbread Houses" my fears left. I read the whole book ( the side "tips" helped allot ) and proceeded to make my first Gingerbread House.
The photos and directions for asembling their "Basic House" were simple and made the process basicly mistake proof for me.
Their ideas for decorating along with photos of completed houses with differnt ideas for this helped me to realize that sometimes less is NOT more....at least when making gingerbread houses.
Even some of the more complicated houses became a possible future house for me to make once I read all of the information that they supplied with the photos.
With their information on " form real life to gingerbread" and their templates I understand the basics of gingerbread houses.

Inns, cottages,chaples,castles,villages and even a riverboat, you are only limited to your imagination.
And....the dough recipe makes for GREAT cookies.
I would recoment this book to nayone that wants to learn the ins and outs of gingerbread houses.