How do you keep your gingerbread house from falling apart? Two winners of the National Gingerbread House Competition at Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville share their secrets.
Faith An and Deborah Kinton, of Fuquay-Varina, are known as "Difficult Dessert Devotees." The niece and aunt's gingerbread creation "Christmas at Tongkonan" won the grand prize in the adult division at this year's competition. It was only their third year competing.
We asked them to share their secrets for creating an award-winning gingerbread house.
Gingerbread House Making Tips
Whether you are decorating a gingerbread house and looking for idea inspiration or if you are new to the gingerbread scene and just learning the basics, these tips will help you make a house that looks professional.
1. Think outside of the house.
Faith stressed that gingerbread houses don't have to necessarily be houses at all. They can be anything and in any shape. Get creative and allow yourself to create something outside of the traditional four-wall house.
2. Use a construction-grade gingerbread dough.
Not all gingerbread is created equally. In order to build like the pros, you will need a sturdy gingerbread house dough. They suggested checking out The Craft Crib website to see six gingerbread recipes put to the test for building, taste, etc. The site is from a fellow gingerbread competitor based in Cary.
Note that construction gingerbread is going to be not as tasty as it has more flour and is much more dense.
3. Use foam board for a template for your gingerbread house.
In order to test the construction and dimensions needed, Faith and Deborah used foam board to build their idea. That way they could see the amount of pieces needed and have a template for cutting out the sizes. Faith said boards were about as thick as she cuts her gingerbread.
4. Use a good gingerbread house glue to hold it together.
While Faith and Deborah used a combination of egg whites and meringue powder, they have used recipes in the past that only used one or the other.
A basic royal icing recipe using eggs involves letting the eggs become room temperature then whipping the egg whites until foamy and adding cream of tartar. Then more mixing and adding powdered sugar. For meringue powder recipes, swap out the eggs and cream of tartar for some meringue powder and water.
Note: I used the meringue recipe and it worked great for my house. Just make sure you mix it enough!
5. Get the four walls or the base of the gingerbread house up first.
They suggest adding the roof the next day, when things have had time to set. You can even decorate the sections before construction and the assemble it.
Where to see the award-winning gingerbread houses
You can see Difficult Dessert Devotees' award-winning gingerbread house, "Christmas at Tongkonan," and other winning entries at the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville through Jan. 2, 2024.
If you can't make it to Asheville, locally Cary has its gingerbread house competition. Winning houses are on display all December at Cary Arts Center.
