Day 2: The Gingerbread Church

And I'm back! I left you last time with a bunch of pieces that--allegedly--will fit together like pieces of a puzzle and magically turn into a church. It's time to have a church-raising!

First, I needed some "glue" to hold everything together: frosting.

The royal icing is ready!

The directions in my book had the walls go up, then to decorate them. But my new book suggested that it might be easier to decorate the walls then raise them, and I like that idea. So here I'm adding an outline to the stained-glass windows.

The front of the church has been decorated with garlands!

Now is a convenient time to do some of the piping I'll need later. I created some weather vanes and a window decoration. I only needed one of each, but these are very fragile and I wanted to make extras.

It's also a convenient time to shingle the church spire and create a clock for the clock tower. I made two clocks (built on a Necco waffer). The one in the background I covered completely with frosting while the one in the foreground I let the waffer show through. I wasn't sure which option I would like better, so I made both!

The finished church spire. I used sliced almonds for the shingles.

The directions in my book said to use styrofoam for the steps in front of the church, but I wanted to use edible stuff exclusively, so I decided to use Rice Crispy treats for them. I could also use them as extra supports inside the church to help hold the walls up when they're drying. So now I'm cooking up some Rice Crispy treats.

It's coming together!

And it's done!

But I still needed to cut the pieces out to size.

And finally, with all my ducks in a row, it's time to raise the walls! During this step, it's useful to have lots of arms--certainly more than two!--so I enlisted my mom to help hold the pieces together while I'm raising the pieces one by one.

The walls are up and the steps in the front installed! To help support the walls, I put Rice Crispy treats in each of the four corners inside the church (they won't be particularly visible when it's done), and even the steps help hold the front wall up. I used the cans and chicken broth to help hold the walls up as well, but they'll be removed when the icing dries.

It's looking good! =)

While that's drying, I then set to work in creating the clock tower and bell tower, which are those upside-down pieces on the right. They'll need time to dry as well.

And that's it for now! This is a good place to stop--and fortunately, there's no rain in the forecast so the lack of a roof on the church shouldn't be a problem. Stay tuned! There's more to come! =)