 Tehe, Just in time for Christmas! I share with you, how to make a Gingerbread house similar to the one I made in Food Tech at school almost two weeks ago! The recipe given to us was definitely not their own, but anyway, I plan to share with you, how to make a Gingerbread House: My school’s Food Tech way! Who ever knew a Gingerbread house recipe would be so long!
Gingerbread House: My school’s Food Tech way!
Ingredients:
190g softened butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup treacle
1.5 eggs
3.75 cups of plain flour
1.5 tablespoons of ground ginger
1.5 teaspoons mixed spice
1.5 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
Method:
Beat butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until creamy and pale. Add in the 1.5 eggs and treacle while beating. Remove the beaters. Sift the dry ingredients together and sift into the butter mixture. (By now, you should have made a rather powdery mess and you should have been having trouble getting the treacle out of the cup) Combine by hand on a floured surface. (Try finding a not very well washed, recently used for something probably unhygienic large chopping board) When kneaded to a nice dark colour, and feels like a good cookie dough, wrap in cling wrap, write your name on it, and store it in the fridge for about a week.
Take out of refrigerator and knead the dough on a cleaner, floured, board until soft again. You can do the following step in two ways, the normal way, or Ethan’s way. To do it the normal way, roll out the dough on baking paper until it’s around yea thick (6mm according to our recipe). To do it Ethan’s way, just smash the dough down with your fist until you think that it’s close to the right thickness (maybe a 5 cm leeway?) and continue the normal way. Cut shapes of the walls and roof from given templates (12x8cm, 15x11cm and 12x15cm (7cm high triangle on the top) and some various other small bits and pieces you may want. You will need about 2 of each minimum. (You can choose to have 7 walls, 1 roof piece and borrow the other roof piece off someone else if you want) Then, to cook your dough, preheat in a reasonably new electric fan forced oven at 170 degrees Celsius. Keep your pieces on the baking paper, place onto tray, and slide into oven for about 20-25 minutes. To pass this time, try throwing some measuring cups into a drawer. Once done, take out of oven, taking care to drop one of your walls back into the oven in an almost impossible to reach spot. Leave the cooked gingerbread to cool for 5 minutes, then wrap in plastic bags, and store in pantry for another week.
To “cement” the gingerbread house, I suggest you use a large piece of silver cardboard as a base, like we did, because silver is shiny! To make the cement, combine 2 egg whites and 500 grams of sifted icing sugar until very thick. Then grab your pieces and cement the edges of your walls to connect each of them and to connect to the cardboard. Ask around if anyone has a spare roof piece, take one, say thank you to the person who gave it to you, then cement on your roof. Leave to sit in some cupboard where it is likely that cockroaches and other insects may crawl over your house but you don’t know that they do and so you can only wonder for a few days.
If you want a house like mine, then it’s not decoration time yet. Make sure that one of your walls has collapsed inwards in a way so that you can’t fix it unless you take off the roof. Take off the roof, take out the wall, use one of your spare walls and cement to fix up the wall, and ask around again, to see if anyone has a spare roof. Rectify your roof, by cementing the one you managed to get from a person with a lot of spare roofs. Store in that cupboard where you are unsure if insects crawl about or not for a couple of more days. If you want a house like Ethan’s, ask for help from your Food Tech teacher to help reconstruct your just collapsed house.
Decoration time! Buy some lollies! Now, if again you want a house like mine, make some royal icing by using the same ingredients as the cement, although use a little less icing sugar or until you have a nice and lighter style “cement” although is able to be piped via a piping bag. I brought along some Candy Canes and a lot of Home Brand junk; “Choc Buttons”, “Fruit Jubes”, “Fruit Flavoured Sticks” and “Jersey Caramels”. Place your icing into a mouldy smelling piping bag and have trouble piping the icing out because the nozzle doesn’t fit on properly or because the piping bag doesn’t like you. Eat about 80% of your lollies and other people’s lollies while you try and find a piping bag that works. Once you find one that works, then stick your lollies on using your piping bag, stealing other people’s lollies at the same time. Decorating may take a few weeks depending on how often you have Food Tech in a week. And if you want an Ethan style house, just let you fellow Food Tech members add some decoration to your house! The image below demonstrates how the two style of houses differ:
Once you are happy with the decorating you have done, it’s wrapping up time! Dust your house with icing sugar and then wrap it up using wrapping cellophane that is only just big enough. Steal a few last minute lollies and other sugar and then Ta Da! You’re gingerbread house is ready for poking by other people! To get the complete package, if you plan on giving it to someone as a gift, once nicely wrapped, smash it! The person who you’re giving it to will be glad they don’t have to spend their on time trying to dismantle the house so that you can eat it. On your way home, don’t forget to drop your house so that the cement fails to keep your house stable!
—————————-
 And there you have it! A Gingerbread house recipe just in time for Christmas! Especially if you don’t have that much time on your hands! (The house on the right is one that Martin made. Which was a lot neater and simpler than ours.
Okay, my fault. I haven’t really posted something in my blog for a while. Not Freehostia’s fault this time, just me being lazy. Although thing is, apparently, I’m smart at maths. After getting results for my yearly maths test last week, I scored 91% which apparently placed my 10th in the year for that test. Should bring my yearly report mark for maths up quite a bit. Fun huh? Meanwhile, my graphics tech test result was 19 out of 20 putting my semester mark to 95, although my year mark is 88 I think, which I believe would place me 2nd in a class of 10… Eheh. Eitherway, it apparently shows that I’m smart according to Will… Hehe…
 Take a look at the gingerbread house that we’re making in Food Tech now! That’s it today. I had to repair it after one of the walls fell in, which meant that I had to take the roof off in order to get that wall out, which meant I needed to do some DIY Home Improvement, and just like the show, I failed to construct it again properly… The cement icing thing (Plaster of Paris it’s called I think but I don’t know anything so whatever…) So I shall be decorating it and filling up all the holes on it with lollies and all that kind of sugary junk that makes people fat and all that… Plus using the icing to cover up the major fixable mistakes while eating a lot of it… Food Tech is so much fun…
Haha, Did you know that people from Yemen are called Yemeni? Hehe, Daniel and Thomas are heading to Hong Kong on Thursday for a week or so on some school excursion thing. They’re flying QANTAS! Muahahahahahahehehehe! Well, at least they get a little taste of Qantas on an overseas flight. Grrr… I want to go to Hong Kong. They get to see the supposedly awesome new (relatively speaking) Chap Lap Kok Airport with all the planes and the plane shaped terminal. They also go to Disneyland and across the Harbour to the city of Macau. They also get to see all the awesome skyscrapers that line Hong Kong… Everyone seems to have gone on holidays some time or another! Nick (Not the Food Tech or Squiggley one) just came back from a trip round Europe, Thomas also went on holidays to Thailand recently, Daniel has been to Europe earlier in the year, then he’ll be spending next year in Germany. There are other people who I know are going on holidays some time soon as well but I can’t be bothered to list them… Grr…
The first of September eh? The beginning of Spring which means it’s Wattle Day here in Australia. Also means that we’re two thirds of the way through the year… For where I am, it was a nice start to the day, with a kinda cold, but comfortable temperature in the morning and a nice, wintery-spring temperature during most of the day. =D On this day, 25 years ago, the controversial events of the shoot down of Korean Air Flight 007 by Soviet Interceptors occurred. It is also the day of which the Shanghai World Financial Center officially opens! Currently the 2nd tallest completed building, but with the highest observation deck in the world, with a view of the city of Shanghai from a height of 472 metres! Hurricane Gustav is forecast to hit the coastline near New Orleans tomorrow morning as well! (Midday September 1 New Orleans time)!
Now, here’s a few strange things. If you’ve been reading my blog for the past few weeks or whatever, I had been procrastinating my Food Tech Assignment for a long time, and I had only started it the night before the due date. I expected a rather terrible mark that would give me not a very good mark for Food Tech this semester. Shockingly, I got a healthy 90% for my assessment. Along with my maths test, I also got a healthy 91% for that, despite my lack of study which to me is very odd.
Although, despite all my seemingly good marks for recent tests and assessments, things have returned to normal in science despite topping my class in two recent assessments earlier. I got an alright mark of 77.5%, which being a bit above my normal science mark, is a sign that my results are starting to return to normal. =D And, as expected, we didn’t make it to state finals for Tournament of Minds… Hopefully we find out how badly we actually performed tomorrow… Well, there’s always next year… (?) I’ve been playing around with photoshop recently… Been trying to do some “art” and I hope to have it completed sometime this week, although, taking into account my procrastination, it’ll probably be completed a lot later… If only I could get the face right… especially the eyes…
Well, I handed in my Food Tech Assignment on Friday after doing it all Thursday… I don’t expect that high of a mark, as the quality of my work was not that great and I didn’t quite answer the questions being asked, but nevertheless, I’ve got it done, and handed it in… Probably would have done something better had I spent more time on it. I also did an English Assessment at school Thursday. I’m pretty sure I kinda killed that, and so I would expect something like 8 or possibly 9 out of 15 for that thing. I got my maths test result on Friday also. I got a nice healthy 91%, so I’m happy with that =D. I procrastinated studying for that one…
I’ve been so lazy the past few days! The text above ^ was supposed to be published on Friday but I got so lazy, I just couldn’t be bothered. The weekend was fun, although it went by too quickly for me. I went to Daniel’s birthday party over the weekend. It was really fun, and I found it rather relaxing actually. I really like the night… Being near a beach, I spent some of the time just lying there, staring at the stars… It felt good, to be able to feel as though that there’s nothing wrong with your life even momentarily… It was very nostalgic… Too bad I can’t do it more often… Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to sleep on on any day of the weekend though :(…
Well, wasn’t it fun? The Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics came to a close yesterday, and now the boring TV shows return… I do look forward to new seasons of “Heroes”, “Prison Break” and “How I Met Your Mother” though. China finished on top of the medal tally by 15 gold medals over the United States. Australia finished 6th on the medal tally with 14 gold, 15 silver, and 17 bronze which makes a total of 46 medals all together. Although, if counting the tally by total medals, the US is first with 110 in total, China 2nd finishing on 100, and Australia would be placed 5th, leading Germany by 5, and behind Great Britain by 1. Now we wait for London, 2012, for the Games of the XXX Olympiad. As a result of the games being over, I change the header image back to the default one.
Okay, I feel that I’ve been procrastinating for waaaayyy too long for my own comfort and satisfaction, so I believe that I should finally start my Food Tech Assignment. But first, I plan to procrastinate a little more…
Mental blank…
Forgotten what I was going to write about now…
Errr…
Think Roger, think!
Gah! Oh well, looks like it’s a sign of some sort to get me started on my Food Tech Assignment… Well, If I can come up with anything, I may write it down later…
I haven’t been feeling too well the past few days and have spent them in bed trying to fall asleep. Since it’s magpie breeding season, THOSE DAMN MAGPIES ARE KEEPING ME AWAKE and therefore have not allowed me a nice speedy recovery! They’re flying all over the place around the back and singing and screaming. IT’S REALLY ANNOYING! They become really protective and pretty much swoop at anything that moves. Which accounts for the lack of Lorikeets and Mynas. There’s also that poor kookaburra who keeps on getting attacked at. 🙁 There’s also that annoying smoke alarm that beeps sometimes during the middle of the night/early morning, but that problem was resolved earlier. Unfortunately, I should be well enough to return to school tomorrow, as long as I have a decent amount of sleep tonight…
I guess in some ways it’s good that I’ll be well enough to go to school as, according to my last report card thingy, I’ve had 0 absences, (although I know I’ve had at least one) so, I could have a perfect attendance record if that’s what it said. Also I have a Food Tech practical lesson tomorrow! =D What’s even better-ness is that the next three lessons I have Food Tech will all be practicals! =D=D=D w00t! No theory lessons for a while! Hmm… That also reminds me, I should start my Food Tech Assignment that’s due this week… Since I haven’t been feeling well the last few days, I haven’t been on the computer to do my assignment. :
Well, that’s all I can be bothered to write about for now, as I finally begin my Assignment thingy…
Extra stuff added about half an hour after ^original time of publication:
*cough* *cough* Ahem… *cough* No, I’m not procrastinating still… *cough* Although I just conveniently stumbled upon a poem I wrote for school a few years ago called “People and their fish”… The poem goes as follows:
Scattered everywhere,
You’ll find it almost anywhere,
There are fish,
And it’s yummy a dish
With lots of herbs and spices
Japan loves fish as food,
When they eat it, they’re in a good mood.
Fishing for omega three,
They might to look up a tree!
But realise their luck,
They find a buck!
They trade it for eel,
But guess what they feel,
Nothing but a piece of black slime!
… Anyway, back to my Food Tech Assignment!
Hm, a fairly late night, last night. Stayed up till 3 in the morning today to watch the Opening Ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. If I remember correctly or something, the opening ceremony was the single, most watched television event in history. Wow. It was very nicely organised and presented. I don’t quite remember other opening ceremonies, so I don’t know if this was “the best ever”. The countdown was very interesting, and was certainly different from other opening ceremonies. I imagine it would have been rather difficult to get everything working in time, and it would have taken a lot of rehearsals to get the movements correct for the opening ceremony. Heh, funny thing is, I think that the lighting of the cauldron was a few minutes after midnight… For the next 16 day, of sports in smoggy Beijing and various other venues around China. Go Australia!
Anyway, remember when I borrowed that “Learn Japanese” book thing? Well yeah, I returned that on Thursday… Hm, it’s weird, yesterday, Sam and I bought two blocks of chocolate, (they were half price…) He chose milk, I went for dark. I prefer dark, don’t like milk that much, but it has to be more than 60% cocoa otherwise it’s just weird… I stayed away from the milk and I stuck with my own dark chocolate. I don’t actually eat that much chocolate, so I, along with Sam, shared the chocolate with some of my friends… Although, Daniel ate the most of mine, (I didn’t mind), and ate quite a bit of Sam’s… Now, it was weird… After a while, Sam couldn’t remember quite a few details that happened recently… Either he was faking it (which we all know he sometimes does/we don’t believe him) or it was temporary, as after a while he could remember things again… Today, I’ve been rather forgetful, either it really was the chocolate, or that I just didn’t get much sleep last night… Oh well, I’m sure it’ll pass by…
I cut a lot of paper squares yesterday, and I’ve folded quite a number of paper cranes recently… I wonder how much longer it’ll take until I get to 1000… Hehe, also yesterday, we made “spanakopita”, which pretty much means spinach pie in Greek. There wasn’t as much onion used in this recipe so the fumes that came from all onions being cooked on the stove wasn’t as bad as that time we made tomato soup… It wasn’t that bad of a recipe actually, unlike some of the recipes we’re given, although the recipe we were given didn’t make many triangles. =( I like the flaky texture of filo pastry, and the yummy saltiness of feta cheese… I wonder if we’ll do bruschetta or something next time, which reminds me, I’ve got a food tech assignment thingy due soon…
Note that this was a post from my blog at an older location: Posted June 27 2008
Well, one of my bestest friends Toby had his last day at my school today as he earned a scholarship to another school. He only told me/most of us today for what I could say was a reasonable reason… Anyway, if there was longer notice, I probably would have organised a farewell thingy of some sort but with short notice, I still tried to organise something… Because I had Food Tech today, I asked my Food Tech partner Nick if he was willing to help me make something in Food Tech. He was willing but that plan got failed as the faculty didn’t have much/no ingredients available for us to use… So, last minute plan that I thought of near the end of the school day, Toby, some other friends and I go to “Gelatissimo” because everyone likes Ice Cream! So that was our “farewell” thingy… Anyway, he may be coming to back to my school later in the year in case he doesn’t fit in at his new school…
Brrr… this morning was so cold! It was really hard to get out of bed! Anyway, we made “Tomato Soup” in Food Tech… Onion hurts my eyes! Because the tomato soup contains onion, and we had to cook the onion in a frypan/saucepan or whatever…, and with at least 10 other frypans cooking onion at the same time in the same room, the fumes and and all that from the onion burns! It makes your eyes all water and you scream in agony! You close your eyes and it makes things worse! People all over the classroom screaming in pain, not noticing that their onions were burning! (yes the reaction was exaggerated but you should get the idea…) But beside that, the final result was pretty good…
w00t! Weekend! Fun! Sleep! Homework! Just what I always wanted! Hehe, Thomas just installed wordpress on his forums just then… He’s no where near as stupid as I am when I was trying to install it… Well, should be doing my English assessment thing but I can;’ be bothered…
Note that this was a post from my blog at an older location: Posted June 17 2008
Well, it took some time and I feel rather stupid after I had a lot of trouble trying to install this into Freehostia and Thomas told me that there was an easy install thing provided by Freehostia or something… Well, at least I now have this (hopefully) fully installed for my website! Now people who can be bothered to read this will find out how (much more in some cases) stupid I am/can be!
Yes I like confusing people and a lot of the times, I confuse them unintentionally… But anyway, I have a Science test tomorrow, a chemistry topic… Acids and Bases… Well it should be fun. I should study for it and I think I will once I have finished writing this… Our school’s athletics carnival was supposed to be tomorrow, but thanks to the weather, our carnival was canceled and so I have to do ten pin bowling again just like I have done for the last… 10(?) weeks… Should be fun…
Well, since I do Food Tech as a subject for school, (if you didn’t know already…) we had a prac today and we were to make a “pineapple up-side down cake” thingy… So, working with my friend Nick (not the Squiggley Inc. one…), and another friend of mine known as Alex, made a very… umm… well… cake thing. It was better than doing theory for Food Tech. as Food Tech. theory is terribly boring… Well, most of my friends liked the cake… I think… but anyway, should study for science thingy!
|
|
