Ginger Bread House

They say you cannot buy happiness but you can buy wine, that is the same thing don’t you think? 

We see these quotes all over our world, in shops, tearooms and on the internet. Some are just cheesy, while others do make you think. The best are still those that play on words; Wake up and smell the coffee. I did like the coffee advert that read, Black as the night, Hot as hell, Pure as an Angel, Sweet as Love. Makes no sense as you would never drink coffee that hot but still has a ring to it that we can all enjoy.

Enough of coffee and advertising, it is gingerbread houses we are talking about and more precisely, the evening building the gingerbread houses. Four houses to build and 45 minutes to build them. Alex did say that there is no time limit, which makes him nervous. I did a dramatic count down but that seemed to be ignored with only a slight giggle from Mika, she is very competitive. 

Our lounge was filled with the fragrance of ginger and cinnamon, four teams lined up to make their gingerbread house, Christmas carols softly in the background, set the theme for this first Gingerbread bake-off. For the first 10 minutes, there was very little conversation and the instructions for the basic structures were understood, onwards they built, roof on and then the decorations. Now this is where everyone gets competitive, Susan calmed their nerves with words of encouragement, the standard was high. 

There was two types of build, Gingerbread biscuit and Chocolate. Kate went with the Chocolate material and everyone else went with the Gingerbread biscuit material. Kate went with a church design while the rest took the more traditional route of a country cottage. 

Most started with building the structure first and then going on to decorate but the Italians decided to decorate first and then construct. Interestingly they all seem to achieve the desired outcome with one exception, Robert's and Michael's house did have a slant to the roofline, nothing serious but to the trained eye, a construction fault and therefore was noted. I have included all the Gingerbread and Chocolate houses for you to admire.

Who won, not quite sure as Lady Vivienne was meant to announce the winner and then never did, it is the melancholy again.

My winner for the Chocolate category was without a shadow of a doubt Kate’s church and the country cottage category was very close but I do believe Mika just pip it. Well done to all those who made the evening a great Christmas celebration.

Mika

Kate

Mika

Michael and Robert

The Middle Smiths