Baking Adventure: The Making of the Yumeiro Patissiere Gingerbread House

This Christmas, I really wanted to make a gingerbread house and was inspired by the one made by Ichigo in the anime Yumeiro Patissiere. Here's a breakdown of all the different features of the gingerbread house I made:

Yumeiro Patissiere's Gingerbread House for Ringo

House: The house itself was actually from a prebaked gingerbread house kit I got from Walmart. It didn't come with a chimney so I baked my own along with the cookies and "installed" that element.
Roof: The rainbow at the top of the roof was made with Sixlets, while the pink border was made with M&Ms. I covered the roof with icing (which was included in the gingerbread house kit) and attached the cookies and Sixlet accents.
Chimney: To get the snow on top of the chimney, I added milk to some of the icing to loosen it up. I then spooned it on top of the chimney and let it drip down. It's important to add the milk in tiny increments until you get the proper consistency. You don't want it to be too thick because it won't drip and you don't want it too loose because it will flow too much down the chimney. As a rough gauge, when you spoon and drop a drop of icing into the bowl, it should take about 8-10 seconds to "melt" back into the rest of the icing.

Yumeiro Patissiere Gingerbread House Roof and Door

Door: The door was made with a Biscoff cookie cut into the proper shape. I was going to use a graham cracker, but since the Biscoff cookies were open, I just used that to avoid opening another package of cookies. The doorknob was made with a chocolate chip (with the tip cut off for easier sticking) and the decorative border was made of little bits of Airheads that were rolled into balls. Airheads don't come in yellow, so I had to dye the white Airhead with some yellow food coloring. To make things easier, you can use yellow Starbursts or Laffy Taffy instead. I thought I still had some at home, but either someone ate them or they got thrown out so I had to improvise and make my own. You can also use nonpareils, but I only needed a few and didn't want to buy them. Not to mention, Airheads are a whole lot cheaper than nonpareils. :)

Yumeiro Patissiere Gingerbread Hose Window

Window: The window was made just like the door. I used pretzel rods to make the grid pattern.

White Chocolate Hello Kitty Figures

People: I don't have the skill or patience to make little fondant people so I used white chocolate and my Hello Kitty ice cube tray to make white chocolate figures. When they solidified, I used a toothpick to carefully cover the clothing area with icing. I then added some blue sanding sugar to add some color for the clothes. I also used melted chocolate to make the eyes.

Gingerbread Candy Christmas Tree

Tree: To make the tree, I first made a parchment paper cone and stuffed it with extra parchment paper to make it sturdier. I placed gingerbread around the cone and baked it with the rest of the cookies. To make the leaves, I flattened some green gumdrop stars and cut out diamond wedges. When the cookie was cool, I covered the tree with green icing and adhered the candy wedges. When that was hardened and dry, I added the red Sixlets for the apples.

Wooden Fence for Gingerbread House

Wooden Fence: To make the wooden fence, I stuck pretzel rods in a marshmallow base and used icing to adhere them all together.

Gumball Fence for Gingerbread House

Gumball Fence: The gumball fence was made with blue and pink gumballs on the same marshmallow base as the wooden fence.

Gumball Apples

Apple Border: The apple border was made with large red gumballs dipped in icing. To make them more stable and not roll around, I shaved off a little bit of the gumballs so there was a flat bottom surface. I stuck a toothpick through the gum part and then dipped them in the loosened icing and then added green Airhead stems before the icing dried.

So there you go! All the different elements of my Yumeiro Patissiere gingerbread house. It took me several days to complete and cost about $30 to make with all the different candies. Pretty crazy... kinda stressful... but loads of fun! I hope everyone has an Extraordinary Merry Christmas!