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The Wonka Gingerbread Cottage
By Marc | December 19, 2008
Tuesday, I mentioned I won a Wonka Gingerbread Cottage at my company’s Christmas party. Last night, the boys and I decorated.
The box it comes in is pretty big, larger than that of most gingerbread house kits. On the front, it says you get a half pound of candy! Through the windows, you can see what you’re getting: Runts, Nerds, Bottle Caps, and SweeTARTS.
After I opened the box, I realized just how small it is. I’m sorry this photo has nothing in it for size comparison other than the plastic fangs. The box art on these things never give you an idea of how dinky they are. They’ve already probably figured out that it’s far too small to justify spending 40 bucks on it. I know I wouldn’t. Looking at the candy, it seems at first like so little once it’s out of the box. Also, four of the six gingerbread pieces were broken (certainly not the fault of the manufacturer), so I had to do a little home repair with the icing.
The packaging itself is a little disappointing. The box seems twice as big as it needs to be, having lots of empty space. The green plastic “main” tray and the little clear plastic one for the gingerbread pieces don’t have any recycle symbols that I could find, so unfortunately they have to go to some landfill. The only recyclable is the box.
The box instructed me to cut the base shaped portion of the green tray out and mount it to cardboard or wood, then wrap it in aluminum foil. I mounted it onto the box our digital/analog TV converter came in because it was the right size, wrapped it up, and made sure it stayed with my black duct tape. Function over form sometimes.
I’m never really delicate on the building of these things. I would like them to look nice and perfect, but I’m more concerned with making it structurally sound, so I heap mounds of icing into the ends.
Here’s the completed “framework”. There’s a line in Better Off Dead
If you’ve never worked with gingerbread icing, it’s awesome. It’s pretty simple, just powdered sugar, cream of tartar, and egg whites. It’s pretty easy to work with, it’s tasty, and when it dries, it’s like liquid nails! If it weren’t so delicious, a gingerbread house could probably remain in one piece in a tornado.
Rather than making nice pretty borders, trimmery, and lacy stuff, I find it’s much better when working with underage labor to just cover entire sections with icing and let them place the candy on.
Our five year-old is very meticulous. He places the candy on very precisely and covers every square centimeter of space. The two year-old seems to eat as much candy as he decorates with.
Here’s our finished house. Earlier I said the amount of candy seemed lacking, but I think you get far more than you need. The two sides are still plain gingerbread, but the roof, front, and back are covered in candy, as you can see. We actually had some left over, even after each of us nibbled during construction. My only real complaint about the candy was the Nerds. They make a nice effect, but are just too tiny for young hands. The five year-old took the time to make a row of them at the base on one side, though. To get them on quickly before the icing set, I turned the house on its side, poured some on, and patted them in.
Conclusion
Gingerbread houses are a lot of fun. Unless you have the time to bake the gingerbread yourself, you are usually stuck with a kit. We were really impressed with the amount of candy supplied in this one, but were really disappointed by the deceptive packaging and non-recyclable plastic trays. But the boys really enjoyed it, and were so proud of their finished work. Overall, food decorating is a great activity for kids and parents to share.
Usually, we wait until after Christmas to buy one on clearance because, like this product, I can’t justify paying $40 for one. You may have a real need to have one for a Christmas get-together or as a decoration, but otherwise save yourself some money and buy it afterwards. Then you can have a nice treat you can gradually nibble on that stays edible for a couple of weeks. It’s certainly great for a New Year’s party snack.
Topics: Art, Crafts, Holidays, Reviews | 2 Comments »
December 20th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Congratulations. We have assembled gingerbread houses for several years with grand children. This year there were some changes in the walls so the whole thing colapsed. When we tried again with God children we took special care and thought we had it fixed. Plus parent og God children is an ex carpenter. Building still colapsed into a gingerbread sandwich. Next year we use nails, screws and real glue. Merry CHRISTmas to all.
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:09 am
Well then, Bob, I suggest a kit! We had several now and they do hold up for us! We’re not even carpenters. I’m laughing at the image of you pounding nails into gingerbread, and I bet real glue wouldn’t taste as good as frosting.