Grandma's Gingerbread Recipe

Decorating Gingerbread houses is an activity my children look forward to participating in all year long! My all time favorite recipe is this one from Wilton - 'Grandma's Gingerbread Recipe'. It is truly a perfected piece of work! Now days, most craft stores have cookie cutters for sale that are the perfect size for small gingerbread houses.

Jenna is busted! Nothing like a little (or a lot) of sugar to really get things moving!

Grandma's Gingerbread Cake Recipe

Instructions:

Tools:

Cookie Sheet

Gingerbread Cookie Cutters

Royal Frosting

Ingredients:

5-5 1/2 cups of flour

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

2 t powdered ginger

2 t cinnamon

1 t ground nutmeg

1 t cloves

1 cup solid vegetable shortening

1 cup sugar

1 1/4 Cus unsulphured molasses

2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven 375 degrees. Thoroughly mix flour, baking soda, alt and spices. Melt shortening in large saucepan. Cool slightly. Add sugar, molasses and eggs; mix well. Add four cups of the dry ingredients and mix again.

Turn mixture onto lightly floured surface. Knead in remaining dry ingredients by hand. Add a little more flour, if necessary, to make the dough firm. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut out cookies with Metal Gingerbread cookie cutters.

Bake 6-10 minutes for small to medium size cookies and 10-15 minutes for large cookies. Longer for bigger sides of the house.

If you are not going to use your gingerbread right away, wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate. Refrigerated dough will keep for a week, but be sure to remove it 3 hours prior to roling so it softens and is workable.

*Substitute 1 1/4 cups light corn syrup for molasses to make Blond Gingerbread.

Makes 40 medium cookies.

Royal Icing

When I was 17 I broke my Mom's Bosch mixer trying to achieve the stiffest peaks possible. Ooops! Be careful, and add a drop of water if you need to! The frosting should be soft and easy to spread... there is no need to have it be terribly stiff.

Ingredients:

3 level tablespoons Meringue Powder

4 cups sifter confectioners' sugar (approx. 1 lb.)

6 T water

Beat all ingredients at low speed for 7-10 minutes (10-12 minutes at high speed for portable mixer) until icing forms peaks.

Yield 3 cups of icing.

Decorating Instructions: Ornaments With royal icing, pip outlines and facial features using Tip 3 and Disposable Decorating Bags. Use Wilton's Icing Colors to create different looks. Attach candy canes with royal icing.

Gift Tags Pipe outlines and facial features using Tip 3. Attach real ribbon bow with royal icing. Cut a tag from lightweight cardboard and punch a hole to attach to bow.

Place Cards Ice area where the name will go. Add name and trim with Tip 2. ipe outlines and facial features using Tip 3. Bake a small triangle shaped gingerbread piece to prop gingerbread cookies up. Prop upright by attaching triangle to back of gingerbread cookie using royal icing.

This is Wilton's famous Gingerbread Cake Recipe, and it is truly a perfected piece of work!

The items listed above, including the meringue powder can be purchased at Michael's. Enjoy!