Gingerbread

Time to play Gingerbread "I Spy"


Can you find? 6 characters from the Wizard of Oz? The German baby (wearing lederhosen)? A skier (looks more like a grandma)?


I can't go a year without making gingerbread men. Here's our crew of decorators this year: Jackson, Matt, Kristin, and Robert. Oh, and me, but I was the photographer. Some things you should know about making gingerbread men:
1. You really should start making them two days in advance. The dough is refrigerated over night, and then you bake them the second day so they have time to cool by the third day when you want to actually decorate them.

2. When you roll them out, roll them out very thin and be sure to poke a hole in the tops of the heads so you can hang them on your Christmas tree.

3. Be sure to have all kinds of candy to use to decorate them. Some necessities seem to be chocolate sprinkles (works well as hair), mini M&M's, and gum drops.

4. Use ornamental icing: 1 egg white, 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar. You can dye this any color. Use paint brushes (cheap ones) to brush the paint on and toothpicks for the details. The icing dries very well and hard and shiny.

5. When Mom starts taking pictures, look like you're not having any fun at all.

6. It's definitely more fun when you have a theme. Kristin went with a "tie-dye" theme, Matt more of a "line" theme, and Jackson well, what would you call Jackson's theme?
When we were almost finished, I mentioned to Kristin that she should make Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Then, it just snowballed into a fun idea. We made Dorothy, Toto, the Wicked Witch, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion.

Robert using tweezers to get the "hair" on Toto to lie just right.
7. Remember to hang them on the tree and don't eat them until Christmas. Yes, you can eat them! They're just like a frosted gingersnap. Jackson loves them!

It's been 4 days, and my gingerbread are still lying on my kitchen counter. . .