Week 29 Gingerbread house

Our last week before our assessment. Not a big menu but an interesting day nonetheless. We made Stollen, Panettone and gingerbread house. It is all about Christmas!

Stollen is a traditional German cake, usually eaten during Christmas. It contains dried fruits, marzipan in the centre and heavily dusted with icing sugar.  Our Stollen didn't really cover the marzipan as it was bursting in the oven. Need to wrap it nicer on assessment day. We will be making Stollen again next week. 

Stollen

Stollen 

Stollen

Panettone is a type of sweet bread loaf originally from Milan, Italy and also enjoyed during Christmas.  It had a cylindrical base and can be as tall as 15cm and may weigh about 1kg. With such a big size bread, it took a really long time in the oven. It was in there for more than an hour. 

Panettone

Panettone

I guess for me, the interesting part was making the gingerbread house. We prepared the gingerbread dough a week earlier and kept it in the fridge. Now it is time to cut the shapes and bake them and also assemble the house. Gingerbread house is famous during Christmas time but we got to make them in April. So instead of a Christmas themed house, I made a different house. I call mine the "Simply Happy" house. We shared the dough and managed to get one small house each. Well at least we got to make our own house and take it home. We were not given a lot of time with the decoration but it was still fun. 

Gingerbread shapes 

 With the limited time, this is how far I got with my little house. I manage the get the shapes glued on the board with royal icing. I have a little car, 3 birdies and 2 fences. But I wanted to make it prettier, so I took some of the remaining royal icing home and continued with my work.

Incomplete gingerbread house

 I spent another hour at home with the decoration. I coloured some of the icing with yellow and some with pink. I added more M&M to the sides of the house and the footpath. I put up the moon with a wire, coloured it yellow. Gave the birdies some character. Coloured my little car pink. Just a few finishing touches and I told myself to stop after one hour. Otherwise I think I will go on and on with it. Ha ha.... 

"Simply Happy" Gingerbread House

 Moonlight brightens the night

Birdie on the roof

My "Simply Happy" front door

Back of the house

Simply Happy

My little pink car

Side of house with Heart shape windows

Maybe next Christmas I might try making another gingerbread house. What a good way to finish the lesson for the term. Next week will be assessment and then I will welcome the 2 weeks break with a big smile. 

Life is short, so be happy :)