Christmas time means baking - so we planned a day to get together with our friends the Sheppards and decorate gingerbread houses in what is becoming a family tradition. Last year Alison baked the gingerbread so I volunteered to do it this year - big mistake. I tried two big batches and finally gave up. If anyone has a good recipe for making a gingerbread house I'd love it! For the first batch I used the recipe that came with the gingerbread-house shaped cookie cutters, but it turned out way too dark from all the molasses and wouldn't hold together when I tried to roll it out. I decided to put it in the fridge and see if that would help but that just turned it to concrete. The second batch, courtesy of google, was not any better. In the end I wound up buying one of the pre-packaged kits that even includes the icing (looked good, tasted disgusting).
I also saw some delicious fresh peas at the store so these first two photos are of the kids getting them ready for dinner.
We divided the kids into teams by drawing names out of a hat, so Josie and Katie worked with Monty and Ellie and Meggie worked with Pippa. When Dugald and Matt arrived they got to judge the houses and declare the winner, and the children were not tolerating any parental diplomacy that tried to point out the merits of both without actually choosing the best. In the end Meggie, Ellie and Pippa won.
These lovely cookies below are from the batch of sugar cookies the girls and I iced and decorated this morning to take to Rob and Liz's on Christmas. They actually taste good though we could definitely improve our decorating skills.
Happy Baking!! Dx
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