Gingerbread

It is far too close to Christmas to be thinking of anything too academic so in lieu of research I present - PROCRASTINATION!

Every year my department's Christmas party consists of some Christmas themed papers followed by some civilised nibbles and wine. This year, my cohort Ruth and I decided to take the nibbles to a higher level.

This began with the construction of a cardboard monastery from which the biscuits would be modelled on.

Once Ruth and I had finished the model, I took it home and proceeded to bake, and bake, and bake, and bake....

I ended up doing a double recipe of Merry Berry's Gingerbread House recipe and I very seriously recommend her tips about cutting the shapes out on the baking parchment and so on.


This was all allowed to cool overnight before Ruth came round the next evening and we began gluing it all together with royal icing. This is actually the most difficult part as patience is a commodity I lack and the walls really do have to be set quite firmly before you can add the roofs.

Set they did however and the whole structure was then left to dry overnight with strategic bottles used to prevent slippage.

Once it was all dry, a mildly stressful journey in my car saw it arrive safely at University where it received it's final dusting of "snow".

 

 

 

All in all the product of two evenings and a year of occasional lunchtime discussions. 

See you all next year!