Gingerbread Cityscape

Hello ~ I'm not great at Gingerbread, but I like it and have made a few houses for Christmas and Halloween. Check out my gingerbread Eiffel Tower on Instructables.com.

Making a 3-D gingerbread structure is time consuming and can be stressful. Very gratifying when it's successful. But the worst part is, I can't put a gingerbread house on my mantle! A few years ago I saw a Martha Stewart piece where she made 2-D Victorian row houses. They looked so nice, and I set out to make those. But I was not inspired by the shapes. My husband is Turkish, so why not some Turkish landmarks?

The first year I made an Aya Sofia, a Galata Tower, the Izmir Clock Tower and some whirling dervishes. Last year, some Paris landmarks. And this year Rome.

I start by going to google images and searching for silhouettes of the buildings I'm interested in. You can only get so much detail in a gingerbread piece, so if looking at the silhouette you can recognize it, then you know it will work. Piping will add enough detail to round it out and add dimension.Nothing here has to be perfect. This year I was bummed that my baked pieces had a pretty uneven surface. But my husband pointed out that I was making a colusseum, which is old, crumbling stone, so of course it should have a rough texture.

You will need:

Gingerbread dough

rolling pin, flour, baking sheets.

A sharp knife

royal icing

This is a double recipe for the dough I use. It has no eggs and holds its shape pretty well when baked. You can adjust the spices somewhat - it really smells nice and will give your home a nice fragrance. Not recommended to eat, but it is of course edible. It's a fairly sticky dough, which can make it challenging to roll and cut out. Use lots of flour to keep things from sticking.

Eggless Gingerbread Dough (double batch)

7 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

4 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice or cloves

1 cup sugar

1-2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup butter or margarine

1 cup molasses

1 cut water

Combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter. Mix in wet ingredients, mixing well. Chill for at least an hour.

Bake at 350 degrees. check at 13-15 minutes. Larger pieces could take quite a bit longer.

This dough will be hard to lift from cutting board onto a baking sheet, especially larger pieces. Your pieces will stretch and become distorted. I turn a jelly roll pan upside down and roll the dough directly onto the back of the sheet. Or use a flat baking sheet and roll directly onto it. Cut out the pieces, removing excess dough and leaving the pieces in place for baking.

For your designs: Once I have a theme in mind, I go to google images and search silhouettes for that building or image. I like silhouettes, because you know right away if the shape conveys what you want. In the example above I wanted to do the Colusseum. I found some images and made a pattern out of heavy paper. Then I looked through an adult coloring book and found an image I liked better. I ended up just cutting it out freehand instead of cutting with a pattern, and i was happy with the result. Cutting out windows and doorways will weaken the structure, so think about how much you are cutting out and I recommend not making columns/vertical pieces less than half an inch wide. I wouldn't recommend rolling the dough less than 1/4 inch thick, and bake until very firm. You won't be eating it, and you don't want it to be too soft and sag once it's leaning on your mantle.

I like the simple classic look of gingerbread with white icing. Make Royal Icing (I'm not going to supply a recipe here. It's easy to find - powdered sugar, meringue powder, water), and pipe away. I used a #3 tip. It seemed too small when I started out, but actually it seems like the right size now that the pieces are dry. It's hard to get fine detail with this size tip. It would be really difficult with a larger one. Maybe I could have switched to a smaller tip to get more detail on the columns, etc. I'm not the most skilled piper, so I was happy that all of my pieces are recognizable. Let the icing dry completely before handling.

To display, I cut some greenery (you can get christmas tree trimmings at the tree farm if you don't have greenery available in the yard) and placed pieces on the mantle. I think the pieces look best with greenery behind and below them. But if your pieces of greenery are too big, your gingerbread won't sit nicely or evenly.

If desired, add some lights, candles, and other small accoutrements to fill out the scene. Glass ornaments will add color. Place your pieces so they stand securely, and you're done.

Above I've added pics from the last 2 years: Istanbul and Paris.The Whirling Dervishes were my favorite. I made several smaller ones to hang on the tree and to give as hostess gifts. Next year: New York City, London, Chicago...?