Gingerbread Mansion

Okay, so maybe it's not quite a MANSION, but you have to give it some credit.  Usually, I'm not very good at making gingerbread houses (I find that the frosting is never sticky enough).  This particular kit, however, came from Trader Joe's, and I must say that the assembly was incredibly easy. 

It was a little more work (to make the frosting you had to actually beat an egg white, lemon juice and their mix together) than a normal gingerbread house, but it made the frosting almost customizable to the texture that you wanted.  The above photo is the house before I decorated it.  Besides the easy assembly, I loved the little details on the house (roof tiles, grass) and the fact that the kit had little people that you could put in the yard.  (Do all kits have those? I don't know, but they sure are cute.) 

See, they're adorable!  Anyway, if there is a negative comment that I had about this kit, it's that the actual taste of the gingerbread wasn't very good.  I'm not saying it was horrible, but you know that it wasn't the greatest when two weeks later it has not been completely devoured by the inhabitants of my house. 

For the roof, I had some gold dust that usually comes out like powdered sugar when dusted on, so I thought that a I would use it as snow.  However, an accidental smudge of one clump of powder gave me the epiphany that you were supposed to brush on the dust for the desired gold effect (if you are sitting there laughing at my stupidity, know this, the bottle didn't come with directions:)  Anyway, my gingerbread palace ended up witha beautiful brushed gold roof.  

Now, I'm sure there's someone out there who thought that this post was going to be about some crazy intricate gingerbread castle, and for you I do not disappoint. 

mentalfloss.com

flickr.com

Victorian Christmas is the title of this piece which I found here.  The next picture is a replica of a San Francisco street and was found on the same site.

So which house was the best?  In my only partially-biased opinion, I think that my "mansion" wins (JK!!!).  Comment your opinion!!!  And if you want to try a gingerbread house of your own, remember to think outside of the box.  you don't have to be a pro to make something that will look adorable and taste good too.  
Kisses,
Anonymous
P.S.  For the next few days I will be in Big Bear, California.  I will try and post on my laptop while there, but if that proves impossible, I'll give you guys an update and more soon!!!)