Baking · Craft · Kids Craft · My other ramblings

WIP Wednesday-27th December

Karen

Welcome to my festive version of WIP Wednesday, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. This week has some slightly different content to my normal projects. Some are ‘cheats’ as they are also finished, but I can explain why each could still be a work in progress!

I’ll start with our offering to Father Christmas. Each year, on Christmas Eve, we construct our gingerbread house and then leave a piece out for Santa, with a nice mug of Bailey’s to accompany it. We hope it makes a nice change for him from mince pies and milk! Our previous attempts have always collapsed as the icing provided in the kits simply does not have the ability to set and hold it together. This year, we had a strategy. I made royal icing, because that stuff sets like concrete. (I may have modified the recipe slightly as we didn’t have a lemon, but we did have a lime. Lemon, lime, they’re both citrus so I decided it was fine!) We even constructed in stages, glueing the sides together and then leaving it for half an hour whilst we popped to the allotment. When we got home, it was sturdy enough for us to attach the roof. That gingerbread house was so solid we almost needed a sledge hammer to remove the roof for Santa (he gets a good bit, with all the best sweeties on to make sure he leaves us nice presents). The children were in charge of decorating, I think they had a nice time! (Especially my daughter, who adopted the ‘one sweet for the house, one sweet for me’ method.) It is still a work in progress because we are still eating it!

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To continue the baking theme, I decorated our rather boozy Christmas cake. I found designs I liked on Pinterest and then went in my baking cupboard to see what I had in that could be used to recreate them. I settled for gingerbread men and candy canes as I had some red icing left from my son’s birthday cake and it had a best before Date of December ’17 so I felt it best to use it up. I didn’t have gingerbread man coloured icing so I mixed red and yellow Wilton gel colours with white icing and then added cocoa powder until it was the right colour. They have a rather interesting flavour! The candy canes were a total pain to make, hence why there are only two. The red icing kept cracking so it just didn’t work out. I then used the remaining royal icing from the epic gingerbread house construction to pipe details on the gingerbread men. I didn’t have a piping bag so I used a food bag with the tiniest corner cut off. (Improvisation is my middle name, judging by the content of this post so far!) The cake is really very rich and alcoholic, so much so that I wouldn’t recommend eating it and driving. Again, this one is a WIP because we have loads left-I plan on taking pieces with us when we go and visit relatives!

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My next WIP required skill, patience and a steady hand. Drinking Santa’s mug of Bailey’s the night before didn’t necessarily help with those things, but I muddled through. My son got a K’Nex kit with motors, so most of Christmas day morning (and then Boxing Day morning) were spent making a helicopter. The instructions had 36 stages, and at each stage we had to find the right bits, so I squinted at the diagrams to try and assess whether it wanted me to use the long grey rod, or the slightly shorter but darker grey one. A lot I actually held my breath when we switched on the motor for the first time, and was so relieved when it worked! It is still a WIP because the booklet contains 4 more models, and my darling son wants us to pull the helicopter apart tomorrow so we can build one of the others. Wish me luck…

 

That’s all folks, but there is going to be a Finished Object Friday this week! I hope all of your festive makes have been as fun as these, and that you are enjoying the season however you’ve spent it.

31 thoughts on “WIP Wednesday-27th December”

  1. Sounds like a fab Christmas. Great baking. Love the ginerbread men. I too use royal icing to construct my house – no lemon though just egg whites, pure icing sugar and a little cream of tartar. Have fun with the k’nex.

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  8. What a gorgeous house! I am a definite fan of the ‘one for the house, one for me’ technique in decorating, and the candy canes turned out really well! I feel like I could share your improviser title, I reckon I improvise a fair bit in my crafting. 😂😊

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  11. I am sure Santa just loved your Ginger Bread house.. and your daughter did a fine job at decorating.. So did you in your amazing Christmas Cake and well done, you are now an engineer.. 🙂 Fabulous Mrs C..
    I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas..
    Sending you Lots of thoughts and well wishes for a Wonderful Happy and Healthy New Year..
    I hope you are all now well from your colds etc.. There has been lots around, but thankfully touch wood we have escaped it..
    Hugs and Much love..
    Sue xxx ❤

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    1. Thanks, I feel like an engineer now, I made a working army tank earlier too 😂 we had a lovely time, hope you did too. It’s been great catching up! I’ve been struck down with a cold that turned into sinusitis which wasn’t on my list of Christmas presents but never mind! It’s just that time of year. Take care x x

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      1. Sorry to hear about your cold.. My daughter came down with a chest infection so Christmas Eve at hers was cancelled.. She is still not recovered.. She got our Granddaughter a model Greenhouse, thinking it would be great for her Barbie dolls.. How ever its a real model kit.. that will take over ten hours to put together.. I started on it today and made four pieces and need tweezers to put it together with glue.. Its an amazing thing.. But when its finished.. It may well have to go on display LOL.. Two hours worth gone into it today.. And barely touched the project xxx Happy Days xxxx ❤ and I hope you soon feel much better xxx

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  13. Still playing catch-up ….(at this rate I’ll have just about caught up by next Christmas!)

    LOVE the Gingerbread House … your daughter has the traditional way of decorating using sweets: One for the______, and one for me. One for the _____, and two for me. None for the _____, and one, then another one, then another – for me …. etc etc.
    Yup … she’s got it right!

    The cake is BEAUTIFUL! Its a good job I didn’t know about this boozy addition, I might just have had to jump in the car and come and help you to eat it.

    The Hellicopter . . . YOU ARE [officially] A,M.A.Z.I.N.G !!! What a builder you are.
    Little Cobs simply hands over the Lego, tells me to make something then stands back and grins, as he watches me go to pieces trying to get something together with these bits of colour plastic. I’m useless at these building bricks, sticks. poles, wheels, etc etc etc. but you …. you put me to shame. I shall tell Little C that he has to ask his Auntie Craft next time he wants Lego built lol

    Happy New Year my beautiful friend and her family.
    Love you heaps ~ Cobs. xxx

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