Cookie House With Christmas Lights

I had so much fun making this cute little house. Absolutely everything is edible.  I added a little cinnamon to this sugar cookie dough so that it would smell good too. My favorite part  is the chocolate covered sunflower seeds (Christmas lights), the wreath, and the crumbled cookie pathway. Also look closely to see the brick imprint on the side of the house. Oh and don't forget the cute little bird that just landed on the bird bath.This delicious project we be great to do as a family. You could keep it as a center piece for your holiday parties, and /or make one or more as gifts.

cookie dough recipe
royal icing
assorted food coloring
assorted candy decorations
life cereal
powdered sugar for snow
chocolate covered sunflower seeds
gumpaste for bird bath and birds
house mold or house templet 
leaf tip
small round tip
coupler
chocolate rocks

Start off by making your favorite sugar cookie recipe. The recipe I used is here. You can either draw or download your own "gingerbread house" template. I just used a mold that is meant to make chocolate houses. Here is a site that has a template and a  recipe for gingerbread. I also used a brick imprint mat to make my house look more realistic.

First I rolled out the cookie dough then I pressed the brick mat into it real good. Then I pressed the house mold into the dough and used a pizza cutter to cut around the dent that i made. Baked the pieces of house for about 15-20 min.

Pipe a line of royal icing on all the sides of the pieces (except the roof) Position it the way you want and you can use can to hold them up .Let dry well. I Suggest overnight. 

The next day you can pipe some royal icing and attach the roof. Again I suggest letting it dry overnight.

To make the royal icing look like icicles. Squeeze a small amount on the edge of the roof and then pull down. you may want to practice this technique , or maybe even start in the back so you can get good by the time you get to the front.   :) 

To make the roof shingles , simply pipe a line of royal icing and then carefully arrange and attach the life cereal. Later you will sprinkle some powdered sugar on them to look like it snowed.

TIP: The royal icing dries pretty quick so just do one line at a time.

Use some dark green food gel color to tint some royal icing. Put in a piping bag with a coupler so you can change the tip. Use the round tip and draw a non straight line to look like the Christmas light wire. Then pipe a few few small dots where you want to put your lights. (chocolate covered sunflower seeds) Pick out the best looking seed to use - some look like lights and some are more rounded. Place them on the dots and the if you want you can pipe small "dots" on the top of the lights to look like the little parts that the lights are screwed into. Let dry for several hours.

Meanwhile you can work on your wreath. Draw a circle about the size you want on a piece of paper. Put a small piece of wax paper over it and pipe a circle. Then  use the  leaf tip  and squeeze and let go, squeeze and let go making what kind of looks like leaves. Do that all around the circle until you have a wreath.If you want to put some dragees or some sort of candy, now would be the time. Or you can do what I did and add them after the wreath is dry with a tiny bit of piping gel.


TIPS:
Make 2 or 3 so that you can pick the best one. Or sometimes they break.

I suggest letting the wreath dry overnight because you have to carefully take it off the wax paper.

Knead your gumpaste so that it becomes pliable. Shape it to look like a bird bath. Be creative. You can use gumpaste tools or toothpicks or whatever you might have to give it texture.Let dry over night. When it is dry,you can make or buy some blue piping gel and place it in the bird bath.

Wilton sells some cool silicone molds. I have one that has cute birds on it. Here is a link if you want to purchase it or find more about it. I actually got mine at Micheal's craft store (with a coupon of course  :)  )  To use the mold  just push in a small amount of gumpaste or fondant and use a tool or tooth pick to be sure that you have good clean edges.Carefully peel back the mold to reveal a cute little bird.


TIPS:
 
Dust a tiny bit of powdered sugar in the mold, so that the bird will release a little easier.

When using these molds, once you stuff the amount that you think you need to make one bird...cut it in half. It is really easy to over do the amount that you need, then they don't look right.

To attach the wreath to the house, pipe a small amount of royal icing on it and place it where you want. Let dry for several hours. If possible lay the house on its back so the wreath wont fall and break.

Use any color piping gel or royal icing to outline the door. I used brown piping gel and then attached a little draggee / sugar pearl for the door knob.

Dye some more royal icing light green  Put in a piping bag with the grass tip and pipe grass all around your house. As you can see mine is not that way. Lol, I was piping some grass and then the darn bag broke and had green icing everywhere so I decided to just spread it all around. I think it looks good either way.

Now make a little pathway out of chocolate rocks and crushed sugar cookies. Sprinkle a light layer of powdered sugar on the roof and grass to make it look like it snowed a little and of course make this cookie house even sweeter.  ;)

To finish the cookie house I dusted the bird to give him some color and added a cookie tree that has a damask gumpaste imprint on it.I did a full instructable on this method. Here is the link - Cookie Wall Art