Day 5: The Gingerbread Church

The first thing I had to do today was make more frosting after running out yesterday. So I did that and finished up the trim on the church.

As it turned out, I actually forgot to put the white trim on the back edge of the roof, so technically, I hadn't finished it quite yet. I thought I was done, though. Ooops! But I'll fix that overlooked part when I realize I missed it later in these photos....

At this point, thinking the church was done, I started work on the landscaping. I frosted the whole board (it snowed recently!) and added small "bushes" on the sides of the church. There's a lot of plain, boring white on the board, though. We need some more landscaping--with color!

And the church is DONE! I created a few Christmas trees with sugar cones, covered in green icing and little candy rocks pushed into it to act like ornaments. Then added tops to each of the Christmas tree. You'll notice in this photo that I finally realized I had forgotten to put white trim on the back edge of the roof and did it by the time I took this photo. I also added the weather vane at the top. I didn't put it on sooner because it's so fragile and was afraid I'd break it while working on other parts of the gingerbread church. And finally, I sprinkled some powdered sugar over everything to make the roof look like it had remnants of snow. All the ground was covered with snow--it seemed odd that there wasn't a smidgen of it at all on the roof. And presto! It's done! =)

View from another angle.

I think the weather vane at the top is a nice touch. Don't you? It's incredibly fragile, though!

But wait! There's more! The side windows, as you might remember, are supposed to be stained-glass windows. Which look really nice if you put a light inside and turn it on, then off off the lights outside like it was night. And wow! It looked awesome!!!

Another "night" shot, showing more of the front of the church. No stained-glass there, but the light still comes out the small windows.

And one last photo--this time, from the point of view of a dog trapped outside of the church wanting to get in where it's warm and light. =)

I mentioned the books I used to create this little thing, but in case some of you found yourself inspired to actually try making your own (be sure to share!), I'll post the links to the books on Amazon again. The first book has the actual pattern that I used, while the second book has a lot of good techniques and ideas that I used. (It has wonderful patterns for entire gingerbread creations as well.)



And that's it! That's the end of this little "adventure," but stay tuned! Starting next week, we'll be back to the usual adventures of long-distance hiking. Next up: the John Muir Trail from Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney. Look for the first post on Monday!



Just in case you wanted to see it as a video!