Fatherhood Friday: Adventures In Cooking
Ok so this isn’t a normal type of post but it was a fun experience so I thought I would share.
About a week ago Emily suggested that we make gingerbread houses (I’m pretty sure she meant real life sized ones, or at least dolls house sized ones) since every couple of weeks we make gingerbread men while Samantha has a lunch time sleep and then decorate them the next day at the same time. Sam usually wakes up once we have done most of it but there are always things left for her to do as well (usually eating the decorating things and left over dough as well as cutting the last few shapes out).
So I thought what the heck lets give it a go…
I drew out a quick sketch (thank you 5th form technical drawing) to make sure it was kind of what Em was thinking and then made up a small model to check it would work and also to be used as a cutting template.
We made the gingerbread like normal and just after we had finished making it Sam woke up so she got to help ( I secretly think that she knew we were doing something fun and woke up so she wouldn’t miss out).
We made enough parts to make 4 gingerbread houses (since this was a trial run) and the rest got turned into a conglomeration of Christmas trees, teddy bears, people etc…
Into the oven they went and 15 minutes later we had some slightly distorted but still entirely usable house pieces …
At this point the story was put on hold due to the fact that the next day when we were due to ice and decorate them Samantha had a blinding 30 minute tantrum and didn’t go to sleep and was grumpy for pretty much the whole afternoon.
Friday comes round and things go to plan, Sam goes to sleep and we mix up some icing ready to decorate (I was going to make the usual pink icing but Emily insisted that I make chocolate icing). I put together the first house but made the mistake of putting the walls on the inside of the ends which meant the roof didn’t fit so it had to be pulled apart and re-done which made it look a bit messy before we decorated them.
After they were all put together we put them in the fridge for 30 minutes so they would set and started decorating the rest of the gingerbread.
We each decorated 2 houses and I think for a first try at making them they turned out pretty well.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens.
Darkhalide Photography 
Wow, this looks so amazing!! The little houses look so cute!! I can just imagine being a child and dreaming of a doll-sized gingerbread house, playing with the dolls and eating a chunk of the house every now and then 🙂 Great job guys!!
06/08/2011 at 07:09
Cheers 🙂 And they were delicious 🙂 Next time we will have to make them a bit bigger.
07/08/2011 at 09:02
Can you post the recipe of the gingerbread by any chance? Please? 🙂
06/08/2011 at 07:12
Will put on Amanda’s food blog shortly
07/08/2011 at 09:03
Hi Si
Awesome post, would have been nice to see them on a white seamless or shot outside tilt-shifted.
No need to say it, but if ever photography doesn’t pan out, there’s always cake baker!!!
Shannon
06/08/2011 at 17:39
White seamless? Come on Shannon baking is usually shot rustic styles 🙂 Next time will shoot 4×5 then at 1:1 with tilt shift
Cheers though 🙂
07/08/2011 at 09:05
They are just lovely. So much more impressive than I was even imagining. You guys did a fantastic job. I am inspired.
But, how can you possibly eat them?? It’d be a bit of a travesty. I guess the lovely photos of them and the process that went into them liberates you a bit.
x
06/08/2011 at 20:06
Eating them was pretty easy 🙂 2 down 2 to go… The hard decision was which one to eat first 🙂
07/08/2011 at 09:11