This is the first time we have ever decorated gingerbread houses so it was a fun new experience for us.
We tested out 4 DIY packs from the major suppliers – Woolworths, Coles, Aldi & Ikea
Woolworths Jolly Santa’s BYO Gingerbread House $10
In the box there is an instruction sheet, yellow & white icing, various lollies, penguins, crushed candy canes, 2 x roof pieces, 2 x sides, front & back of the houses. The house pieces have the outlines of the windows, doors and roof tiles.
We massaged the icing packs to get it soft and easy to pipe then got started. The icing didn’t really come out of the piping bags very well but fingers did the trick!
So with the panels decorated it was time to build the house into the tray.
We ran out of icing and needed to dip into the supplies we had in the pantry and we needed the dinosaurs to help hold the roof in place while the icing set.
It was quite delicious and we polished it off very quickly!
Coles Gingerbread House Kit – $12
This pack includes the house panels with a chimney, one bag of white icing, gingerbread boy, snowman, tree, peppermint lollies, heart jubes, candy balls and a tray to set it all up.
We put the house together and got decorating!
The icing was much softer and went onto the house much easier. In hindsight, I should have built the house and put it in the fridge while the kids were at school and then had them decorate it but it stayed it together pretty well.
There was quite a lot of supplies left over when she had finished the house and the cookies and once we popped the house into the fridge the icing set very quickly.
Eating wise, this has been the favourite of the kids and the husband. The ginger flavour isn’t as strong and they like the lollies selection the best.
Aldi Gingerbread House Kit DIY – $6.99
The Aldi Gingerbread House kit is based on Hanzel & Gretel (Or Hazel & Gretel as the box says). The box contains and A-frame house kit, Witch, Cat, Hanzel & Gretal figurines, gingerbread shape decorations and tree and lollies.
There is no icing included, the instructions on the back of the box give you directions to make your own icing.
We used the icing left over from the Coles kit, otherwise, I would have ducked out for the ready made Betty Crocker!
This kit has a floor and it has cut outs for where to place the walls, roof and tree and somewhere to set up the figurines.
Again, it would have been better to make the house and let the icing set before decorating but this house was pretty sturdy anyway.
To eat this was my favourite. The gingerbread was soft, the gingerbread shapes were the perfect size to wash down with a coffee when the kids went to bed.
Ikea VINTERSAGA Gingerbread House $7.95
As you expect from Ikea, it included very detailed instructions. The gingerbread house parts, quite a few different lollies and hard icing decorations.
There is no soft icing for the Ikea house but it has instructions to make your own. We used ready-made Betty Crocker icing as making icing is not a strong skill for me!
The instructions are easy to follow. We used cups full of water to hold up the walls while the icing harden into place and the dinosaurs helped us hold up the roof.
The decorating was fun with many of lollies ending up in mouths rather than the house.
I enjoyed eating this one more that the rest of the family, it was the one we found to have the strongest ginger flavour. It paired well with a cup of tea.
All up it was fun building the houses. Next year we’ll probably opt for either the Coles or the Aldi one and add a few extra decorations of our own and I will build the houses first and get the kids to decorate once it has set.
For more Christmas ideas visit our Christmas in Perth page.
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