Victorian House

This house was an entry to a contest in St. Catharines, ON. I learned about the contest later than I would have liked, and really had to push to get something done in time.

For this one, I didn’t start on the computer and went right to prototyping in cardboard. New for this project was a complex roof and bay window. The roof always gives me the most trouble on projects when the pieces intersect at angles rather than just connect at the top of each piece. It takes a lot more to figure out – and when working with cookie, the pieces are never perfect.

After putting the house together in cardboard, the whole thing comes apart. Then the gingerbread dough is made, cut and cooked. TIP: ALWAYS LABEL YOUR PIECES so you know how they fit together after baking.

Decorating your pieces when they are flat is much easier than when the house is assembled. The hard part is still getting the walls to align for joining after. Make sure you have a strategy for corners.

If you are going to light the house (with a battery LED) make sure to cut a hole in the board BEFORE you start putting walls around it. It seems obvious, but I have forgotten before, and it’s tricky to do it after.