That’s the way the cookie crumbles 🍪

The gingerbread Nonnatuns House is no more. The balcony collapsed and the council (consisting of me) decided the damages were too extensive to be repaired, so the house was condemned and later brutally demolished by way of wrecking-hammer.

I thought I’d show some pictures of the building process.

I found pictures of the house and decided on a size/scale reference. The windows above the balcony would be 5cm high and 2cm wide, and all other measurements were based on that. I then made approximate calculations, and constructed a paper version.

I attempted to get the details as accurate as possible, and even made little templates for the balcony front and sides. Unfortunately it proved too difficult to cut the fine details in gingerbread dough, so I improvised a simplified design and cut it free-hand.

I made templates for all the pieces based on the paper version (which can be seen in the picture on the left). Then it was time to start baking!

I attempted to assemble the main pieces but ended up knocking it over, cracking one of the bigger side pieces. I had to have a second baking session where I made the remaining parts and a few spare & repair parts.

The window holes were covered with gelatine sheets, and I cut pieces of an old T-shirt for curtains. I assembled the main part of the house separately from the balcony (mainly so that if one part fell it would not break the other).

I also decided that no version of the house would be complete without a sign. I attempted to make one which was a mix between the actual sign and my icon.

Then it was just a matter of adding more pieces to the building until it was complete. The hardest part was trying not to knock something over, or bump into the table and cause an earthquake. I thought the roof might be too heavy, but it ended up being just fine!

Finally I put icing and powdered sugar on it for a Christmasy feel, and put some fairy lights in the back so it would look a bit cosier.

It looks fine from the front, but from the back we see it’s just a facade supported by milk cartons. The final result:

It’s crooked, uneven, extremely wobbly, leaks light and is not as detailed as I originally intended, but nonetheless I’m quite happy with the result. Whoever runs the CtM social media pages ended up seeing it and posting it to their twitter and facebook and said some kind words about it, and that made me very happy.

Now I just have to think of something to build for this year! I’m open to suggestions 😄