Welcome to a Little Cabin in the Woods, a log cabin constructed from a gingerbread house kit, brown royal icing, and pretzels. We’ll add a winter covering of snow in the next blog entry, but for now it looks warm, cozy and perfect for the Fall.

To embrace the autumn look, add mellowcreme or jelly pumpkins. Put sprinkles that look like Fall leaves under the windows instead of the wintertime holly leaves and berries.

The kit supplied these gingerbread pieces. We’re going to modify the cookies a bit to create a larger house.

Create the Side Panels

Cut triangles from the front and back panels to square off the sides.

First, mark the cut lines with a pencil. Second, microwave the cookie for 15-20 seconds to soften it. Third, use a serrated knife with light sawing motions to cut the cookie. If cutting through your particular gingerbread piece proves too difficult, score and then snap the pieces.

Create the Front and Back Panels

We’re going to turn the roof pieces into the front and back panels of the house. Turn the roof panels sideways. Use a pencil and straightedge to draw a line marking the height of the first story (before the sides triangle in).  Use a serrated knife with light sawing motions to cut the cookie. Again, if cutting through your particular gingerbread piece proves too difficult, score and then snap the pieces.

The roof piece on the left has been trimmed.

Here are the four sides of the cabin.

Create the Fireplace

Go ahead and trim one of the extra house pieces, in this case a side, to use as a base for the fireplace. You don’t need it yet, but the counter is covered with crumbs. What’s a few more?

Meet the Pretzels

You’ll need the three sizes of pretzels pictured below. The biggest ones are the thickness of your index finger and make a perfect roof. The medium sized sticks cover the four sides of the house as edible logs. The thin pretzel sticks outline windows and doors.

Make Brown Royal Icing

For Royal Icing instructions, click here.

 

 

Cover the Sides with Pretzel Logs

Spread brown royal icing on the two side cookies and press in pretzels. Stagger the logs as a bricklayer would. Score and snap the pretzels with a serrated knife to create custom lengths.

Here’s the important part —-

The logs must end flush with the sides of the cookie.

No overhang allowed.

Cover the Front and Back with Pretzel Logs

Here’s the important part of the front and back —-

The logs need to extend beyond the right and left sides of the gingerbread cookie.

I used about 3/4″ of overhang on each side.

When you assemble the house, the extra pretzel length covers the rough edges of the adjoining sides.

Check out the pieces. The top two cookies are  sides and the bottom rectangles are the front and back of the gingerbread house.

The photo below shows a corner of the house. See the door on the front and the jellybean fireplace on the side? Check out the overlap at the corner; the front pretzel sticks extend to cover the rough edges of the side.

Build the Fireplace

Attach the gingerbread piece we cut with brown royal icing.  Cover the gingerbread with black, white, and brown jellybeans.

At the top of the fireplace, continue adding jellybeans to form the chimney.

Add a Front Door and Windows

Attach small, yellow gum squares as window panes. Outline the windows with lengths of tiny pretzel sticks. Attach a set of pretzel sticks to form a door.

Attach holly berry and leaf sprinkles under each window. At this point, I added an extra pretzel under the window to provide a better platform for  the holly.

Let it Dry

Wait to assemble the house until all of the royal icing has completely dried.

Assemble the Gingerbread House

For Assembly Instructions, click here.

The picture below details how the pieces fit together. Take special note of the corners.

Another view of a corner–

Let it Dry

Attach the Roof

It’s time for a confession. I attached the pretzel roof after piano, after dinner, after homework, after midnight. I didn’t take any photos.  Use plenty of brown royal icing and choose the straightest pretzels.  You can see that the large logs almost exactly fit across the length of the roof.

Stay tuned for snowfall and decorations………..

Kristine

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