Gingerbread Resturant

My families Second Annual Gingerbread house contest between my brother and I will be taking place soon. This year it will be the day after Christmas, and this year he is the one who has to travel with his house.

The theme for this year is "restaurants" and this is also the first year I decided to make mine all from scratch. We only have one rule so far, it must be 100% edible. I decided to go all from scratch this year since this time I have a kitchen. I learned a couple of lessons that should aid me in next years gingerbread construction.

1. Measurements are Important
In my first batch of gingerbread dough I learned there is a difference in teaspoons and table spoons. Also, gingerbread is not the most accurate material to work with. For the sizing of the pieces I eye-balled the whole project. I did pretty good considering, but I think a ruler would have made it that much better.

2. Thick Gingerbread Cooks Slower
Maybe this is like a measurement problem, but I think next year I will focus on making all my pieces closer to the same thickness when rolling them out. Also, cooking smaller pieces with larger pieces is not a great idea. I plan to try and keep similar size gingerbread pieces together when in the oven.

3. Painting Icing
Using a paint brush to decorate seemed like an awesome idea. The lady on TV said it doesn't even leave brush strokes when it dries. Things never seem to work like they do on TV.