My housemate was interviewed by a local radio station. He was asked by the radio station to build a gingerbread house in front of a live audience in a local shopping mall, using a gingerbread house kit. He bought the gingerbread house kit and then proceeded to turn it into a tree house.
Gingerbread house kit from the local supermarket (Loblaws)
The semi-finished tree house displayed at the local shopping mall, where the radio station was doing its live broadcast.
This was what local shoppers who walked past the gingerbread house saw. Many were children, and they were fascinated by it.
Some of the handmade marzipan characters.
The following photos show what you can achieve if you pay attention to details. Little things are added or piped onto the house to make it more interesting.
Top view of the tree house. You can see stylized coloured leaves on the tree.
Below you can see how the bits and pieces were created before the whole gingerbread house was assembled:
The tree trunk was made using gingerbread pieces that have been cut out with cookie cutters, baked and stacked up. A layer of marzipan went around the stacked gingerbread pieces, and food colouring was used to paint the marzipan.
Miniature paintings that are inside the house.
Details added around the tree trunk.
Gingerbread pieces from a kit have been modified to look like panels on a tree house. My housemate scored the gingerbread pieces with a serrated knife, and painted them with a dark brown food colouring (to give it a wood-grain finish). Looks realistic, doesn't it?
A dining table that fits inside the tree house. It is actually two battery-operated Christmas lights stuck together, and covered with white sugar paste, then decorated to look like a dining table.
Anyway, we hope the children who saw the gingerbread tree house at the local shopping mall were inspired to create something wonderful with the gingerbread house kits their parents got them.
