Recipe for a Tea House








Gingerbread; icing;
Seaweed; rice crackers; sugar;
Nutmeg; cereal.


Watching the Food Network, H turned and asked me if I had ever seen a gingerbread house made to look like a Japanese tea house.... I said ".......no....?", to which she responded, "I think we should make one", and it was on. Time was short, but the rules were that it had to adhere to the generally accepted guidelines of gingerbread house creation in that all ingredients have to be edible and hand made with no kits allowed, encouraging creativity of materials. Gingerbread would serve as the architectural basis along with Royal icing for the adhesive out of tradition, but everything else was game. A basic model was mocked up with left over map paper and once the basic structure was agreed upon, it was used as a form for the gingerbread.










Stopping by the Asian food market, H picked up some Dashi Kombu for use as shingles, rice cracker mix for decorative features and walk stones, 5-grain cereal for the turf, table sugar for the sand in the rock garden, whole dried nutmeg seed pods for the rocks in the rock garden and rice spring roll skin for the windows and door.









It is not the most elaborate or sophisticated of gingerbread houses, but like the tea houses it was modeled on, its beauty lies in the simplicity. Most of all however, it was fun. Enjoy.











Posted: Mon - December 11, 2006 at 12:23 PM          

©