GINGERBREAD HOUSES, AUSTRALIAN STYLE
Making gingerbread houses in another climate has been a learning experience. In Canada you cook the gingerbread one day and then leave it out overnight to harden. NOT IN AUSTRALIA. I woke up the day after making it and went to check on how hard it was and it had gotten softer. The humidity is very high here. In Canada we heat up sugar to stick the gingerbread together and it gets very brittle and works like a charm. NOT IN AUSTRALIA We made the houses and the next day most of the roofs had slid off. The sugar had just melted. We have put the deficits down to sub-standard Australian building practises and the weird cane sugar that they have here, good Canadian sugar beet sugar would never have melted like that!!! We sent 3 houses home with the neighbours but did not send the houses home with the cousins, big mistake. The roofs have fallen off and the kids don't know, we may have to try and fix them. I was talking to my daughter Jen in Canada and she suggested toothpick and drills, I THINK NOT!
The kids were great, all of them being very patient waiting their turns to get icing piped on and they didn't fight over the kinds of candy that were close to them. The men helped a lot, Grandpa Barry supervised June house building and even managed to put on a candy or 2 himself. Graeme made a beautiful lattice roof and then drew June and Quinn in a window waving! Trish was so organized and helpful with all the kids and then decorated the only house with the chimney while Graeme and his brother took the kids out for a run around the block to work of some of the candy high. Jackie, Graeme's mother and I jointly decorated a house and the Southern Cross appeared on the roof as well as a myriad of stars. It was a fantastic day, and the Lange gingerbread tradition moved to another continent. Trish's neighbour said that she would like to do it again next year, another convert. Graeme and Trish have another small fridge and we are going to put the houses in their to save the ones that haven't fallen apart yet.
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| Substandard building materials needing to be propped up. |
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| Graeme claimed this looked like a suburb in Calgary! |
Making gingerbread houses in another climate has been a learning experience. In Canada you cook the gingerbread one day and then leave it out overnight to harden. NOT IN AUSTRALIA. I woke up the day after making it and went to check on how hard it was and it had gotten softer. The humidity is very high here. In Canada we heat up sugar to stick the gingerbread together and it gets very brittle and works like a charm. NOT IN AUSTRALIA We made the houses and the next day most of the roofs had slid off. The sugar had just melted. We have put the deficits down to sub-standard Australian building practises and the weird cane sugar that they have here, good Canadian sugar beet sugar would never have melted like that!!! We sent 3 houses home with the neighbours but did not send the houses home with the cousins, big mistake. The roofs have fallen off and the kids don't know, we may have to try and fix them. I was talking to my daughter Jen in Canada and she suggested toothpick and drills, I THINK NOT!
The kids were great, all of them being very patient waiting their turns to get icing piped on and they didn't fight over the kinds of candy that were close to them. The men helped a lot, Grandpa Barry supervised June house building and even managed to put on a candy or 2 himself. Graeme made a beautiful lattice roof and then drew June and Quinn in a window waving! Trish was so organized and helpful with all the kids and then decorated the only house with the chimney while Graeme and his brother took the kids out for a run around the block to work of some of the candy high. Jackie, Graeme's mother and I jointly decorated a house and the Southern Cross appeared on the roof as well as a myriad of stars. It was a fantastic day, and the Lange gingerbread tradition moved to another continent. Trish's neighbour said that she would like to do it again next year, another convert. Graeme and Trish have another small fridge and we are going to put the houses in their to save the ones that haven't fallen apart yet.
