Haunted Gingerbread House Ideas

Happy Halloween!

My mom loves decorating gingerbread houses. She does one at Christmas and one for Halloween. Last Christmas I did my own gingerbread house and couldn't believe how much fun I had with it. This fall, I did my very first haunted gingerbread house. It was more fun than the Christmas gingerbread house. Now, I don't bake my own gingerbread. One day maybe. For now, I buy the kit at Target. It comes with white, green, and black icing; a gingerbread tombstone; candy corn; candy bats; candy skulls; little candy balls; and a gummy witch's head. I went out and bought more candy for decorating: M&M's, chocolate Twizzlers, fruit slices, extra candy corn, Oreos, pumpkin marshmallows, some Halloween sprinkles, and Wilton Black Gel, and Wilton Red Gel.

Target Kit

The haunted house came in pieces so I asked Eric to put the house together for me since he has more patience for those types of things than me. Wilson kept him company. Now, I have to admit that I wasn't thrilled with the icing that came with the kit. It didn't hold the greatest.

I covered the bottom cardboard in green royal icing I made. The roof and front path are autumn M&Ms. I lined and filled in the windows and door with Wilton gels. The bricks are outlined in neon green royal frosting and filled in with more red gel.

 In the window you see little ghost sprinkles. I used a toothpick and black gel to draw on faces. The grave is crushed Oreo cookies. In the corner is a chocolate Twizzler tree. They are super easy to make. Just cut the candy along the grooves with a pair of scissors. However, if you make the branches too long, they droop.

The witch is my favorite part of the haunted gingerbread house. 

Her head came with the kit. I then used purple/grape fruit slices for her body and arms. Though sticky, you can manipulate gel kind of like molding chocolate. I used green/lime fruit slices for her hands. The broom is made out of a yellow/lemon fruit slice and a piece of Twizzler. 

The jack o' lantern is an adaptation of this Pillsbury recipe.

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups white chocolate chips
16-oz can orange Halloween frosting
small pieces of chocolate Twizzlers


Directions:
In a saucepan, melt the white chocolate chips over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in frosting. Refrigerate for approximately 1 hour.

Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Shape the chocolate mixture into falls. Use a toothpick to make a groves in the pumpkin or to carve a face. Insert a piece of Twizzler in the top of each pumpkin as the stem.

I was working with odds and ends (a handful of leftover chips, a little bit of leftover frosting) so my pumpkins didn't come out as nice as they could have. I carved faces in the pumpkins then filled the features in with black gel. I also added a green frosting leaf on top.

Side

Side

Back

 

On the back of the house I molded a ghost out of the cream filling from the Oreos I used to make the grave in the front of the house. I used the black gel to draw on the face.

I also attempted to make a second kind of pumpkin. With more practice I think they could come really cool. Eric made a snowman out of marshmallows for my Christmas gingerbread house. I used the same idea to make these out of orange marshmallows. If you pull on marshmallow like taffy, it turns into a very sticky, malleable substance. So I pulled on the marshmallow, rolled it into balls then froze it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. I then rolled them in orange sugar and stuck a piece of Twizzler in the top. Mine turned out pretty lumpy. I had been working on my house for 6 hours. I was tired and didn't have the patience to make better pumpkins. Next year they'll be better, I promise.

I have a bit of an announcement. This has been an amazing autumn. Beautiful weather, colorful foliage, delicious food . . . but what really made it amazing was that Eric and I got engaged! A fall engagement and hopefully a fall wedding next year.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

For more autumn recipes, click here.

Homemade Candy Corn

Candy corn. It's a love it or hate it kind of candy. My mom loves it. Eric could eat it by the truck load. One small handful and I'm good until next year. But I have friends who venomously hate this autumn candy, who can go on a ten minute rant about how much they hate this candy. However, this homemade candy might just change their minds. They taste like candy corn, but like a better vanilla-y, buttery version. Plus, there's a great versatility to these candies. Swap out the vanilla extract for peppermint extract, change the colors, and you have candy corn for Christmas.

I found this recipe on a few different websites, but here's the one I used with a few minor changes.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup non-fat milk powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Red food coloring
Yellow food coloring

Directions:
In a large bowl, sift powdered sugar, milk powder, and salt. (Sifting is very important) Set aside.

Over high heat bring corn syrup, granulated sugar, butter, and vanilla extract to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. When the mixture just begins to boil, reduce heat to medium-high. Stirring frequently, bring the mixture to 228 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove pan from heat.

Gradually stir in the sugar mixture until it's completely incorporated. Now I'm going to be honest with you, doing this with a spatula wasn't easy. I finally got to the point to where I kneaded the rest of the sugar mixture into the dough (for lack of a better word). If you decided to do this, be very careful. The dough is still quite hot and can burn you. I only handled it for maybe 10-15 seconds at a time.

Once the sugar mixture is completely incorporated, place the dough on a piece of wax paper for 10-15 minutes or until the dough is cool enough to handle.

I halved the recipe so you'd half twice as much dough if you prepare the entire recipe.

Divide the dough into three equal pieces and place each in its own bowl. Add about 3 drops of yellow food coloring to one of the bowls and knead the color into the dough. If you're worried about staining your hands, use gloves, but the food coloring washed right off my hands. Add about 2 drops of yellow food coloring and 2 drops of red food coloring to the second bowl and knead it into the dough to make orange dough. Leave the third bowl uncolored.

Roll out a large piece of wax paper over your work area. If you want, you can roll three ridiculously long, thin ropes of dough (one in each color) or you can do what I did and work in batches. If working in batches, make sure to cover any unused dough with plastic wrap or else it will dry out. Line the ropes up so they form a long rectangle with white on top, yellow in the middle, and orange on the bottom. Press the ropes together and flatten them a little. Using a knife, cut the rope into little triangles. Half of your pieces will look like normal candy corn (white-yellow-orange) and the other half with look like inverted candy corns (orange-yellow-white). I won't lie, this is a time consuming process, but the end result is so cute and delicious, it's worth the effort.

Aren't  they cute?

Store the candy corn in an airtight container, making sure to separate the layers with waxed paper. Keep container at room temperature.

The original recipe says that this makes 100 pieces. However, that all depends on how thin you roll your ropes. With each batch my candy corns kept getting bigger and bigger.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Also Check These Fall Recipes:  
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Applesauce Cookies with Caramel Frosting
Cheese Tortellini in a Pumpkin Sauce
Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry with Pumpkin Dip
Mini Pumpkin Pies
Pumpkin Caramels
Pumpkin-Black Bean Stew with Spicy Sausage
Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Brownies