Gingerbread House Ideas

Before we move on Penny would like to present a plea on behalf of her mother. Because it's..

Click on the image above or this link and vote for Dog Hill Kitchen: Cherry Pie Lattice Cookies.  

Now that you are finished and have hit your back button, here's my collection of ideas for my gingerbread house for this year.  The culinary school in town had a gingerbread house contest, but sadly I learned of the contest after it was too late to enter, maybe next year.  The following photos are the from the gingerbread contest which was part of the Zonta Club of Traverse City's Festival of Trees.

These rice treat hay bales look super cute and easy.
They'd be perfect with a gingerbread duck house!

John liked the look of the pepita brick chimney.

The banana chips shingles are nice as well.

I loved the goji berry bridge.

Alex is going through a big fish loving phase and thought the poured sugar pond was awesome.

The grand prize winner used a lot of different homemade candy and had a great theme. 

It's a gingerbread Candy Land board.

Links:

• For those who aren't interested in making their own gingerbread, a post on Avoiding Milk Blog lead me to A and J Bakery in Rhode Island.  They sell Allergen Friendly Gingerbread House Kits. The houses are peanut, tree nut, wheat, gluten, soy, egg, dairy, and sesame free and are made in a dedicated nut and gluten free facility.  They accept orders until the 21st of December.
• Lots of ideas to be had at the Flickr group Gingerbread House Showcase.  There are some very talented people there, just look at these cute owls. 
• My 2009 gingerbread house
• My 2008 gingerbread house
• For the times when you need something smaller than a house, my dairy-free Gingerbread Caramels
• This year I plan on using Martha Stewart's Caramel Syrup and Molasses-Gingerbread Cookie Dough
• Martha Stewart's gallery of gingerbread, with user created houses.

We finally got some good snow, Alex loves to eat it!