Awesome Gingerbread Houses

One of our first years together, my husband and I decided to make a gingerbread house during the holidays, thinking it would become one of our new traditions. We didn't buy a kit, because I thought it wouldn't really be too difficult to cut some rectangles out of dough. Big mistake. It was terrible - really terrible. The walls wouldn't stick together, so to compensate, I kept piling up the frosting (didn't work). We'd get one side up and another would fall down, decorations were dripping off, some of the cookie pieces baked down to different sizes than others... it was truly awful and hilarious. We're going to try again this year, I think, but we will definitely be using a kit. No matter what we do, I'm quite sure none of ours will look as cool as these, but at least it gives me something to aspire to.


CBGB's might not be a brick-and-mortar building any more, but you can always revive it in cookie-and-icing. Photo by Flickr user Honey Bunches of Trouble.


Loving the Gingerbread prison yard from Gingerbread Ghetto. It has a lot of good ones - Gingerbread Serial Killer House, Gingerbread Peep Show, Gingerbread Check Cashing Place. It's highly entertaining.


We've kind of started a tradition of doing to Disney every Halloween, but I really would like to go for Christmas sometime. Then I could see this amazing gingerbread house in person - the Grand Floridian resort makes one every year. Photo by Flickr user Emily Gracey.


Pirates + Gingerbread = Perfection. It's called "Pirates of the Jelly Bean" and was part of the annual George Eastman gingerbread house display. Photo by Flickr user Zeus_the_Ferret.


Flickr user heath_bar posted this one and the one below. His office had a gingerbread competition and this is what one of the groups came up with. I'm insanely impressed. I work with a creative bunch of people, but I'm not seeing any of them coming up with gingerbread Mt. Rainier.




This one is a display in a Seattle hotel. From Flickr user Sweet Tortilla.


Of course there's a gingerbread replica of the White House as well. Created by the executive pastry chef, the cookie Executive Mansion can be seen in the State Dining room during the holiday season. Check out close ups and shots of the whole process here.


I've always wanted to go to the Winchester Mystery House ... I never thought of making my own while I wait until I get the chance to visit.
Photo by Flickr user ehoyer.


Have you seen any good ones? Have you created any good ones? Let us know in the comments.