I want to hear the music!

Skip all this! Go to the Page Index!

Margo's
GingerBread Creations

Learn how to make a variety of gingerbread creations, including Christmas houses, Easter eggs, Fourth of July flags and other holiday goodies

I have enjoyed the hobby of baking with gingerbread for many years. I am sharing my creations and recipes with you.

Jesus said to his disciples, "You have heard the commandment 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth...' My commandment to you is: Love your enemies, pray for your persecutors. This will prove you are the sons of your heavenly Father, for whom the sun raises on the bad and the good, He rains on the just and the unjust." (Matthew 5:38, 44-45)

This page was last updated on November 13, 2008.

Welcome to the joy of gingerbread - the baker's modeling clay. Gingerbread can be molded and decorated into as many shapes as you can imagine.

Gingerbread is very appropriate for every holiday celebration, just not Christmas anymore. Gingerbread can be used for:

• St. Valentine's Day as a heart shape box that holds delicious chocolate candies;
• St. Patrick's Day as a candy covered four leaf clover;
• Easter as a Panoramic Egg, jeweled with hard candies and deplicting a gingerbread scene;
• Mother's Day as a beautiful hat or basket of flowers;
• The 4th of July as an American Flag or Uncle Sam;
• Halloween as a spooky ghost filled Victorian Mansion; or
• Thanksgiving as a rainbow tailed Tom turkey.

When it comes to baking with gingerbread, think beyond Christmas and the traditional gingerbread house. Your only limitation is your imagination.

My adventure with gingerbread began in South Lake Tahoe around 1983. A very dear friend, Faye Henry, had seen an A.T.&T television commercial. The commercial's theme was friends gathering to make a gingerbread house. The commercial struck a cord with her. The people were having so much fun and creating such a wonderful house that Faye wanted to host a party as well. Faye called upon me to help her because I decorated cakes. I also had the recipes and the supplies.

We didn't know how to make a gingerbread house; and after a pot of hot spiced wine, we didn't care. But the experience inspired me to set upon a trek to discover the wonderful world of gingerbread. After 15 years of baking with gingerbread, I am sharing with you my limited knowledge on the subject, just in case you're starting on a trek yourself.

Now that you have discovered my history with gingerbread, read about the full history of gingerbread. Joyce King of Las Vegas, Nevada, requested this information. I found it so interesting that I have included it as a page on my site entitled The History of Gingerbread.

These are the pages you will find within my site:

• Christmas Houses
  Photographs of Christmas Houses.
  On this page you will find photos of different house styles along with their patterns.
• Holiday Uses
  Photographs of Non-Traditional Uses.
  This page highlights the many different occassions and projects for which gingerbread can be used, St. Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and a Chapel. Along with the photos, I have included the patterns and instructions.
• The Gingerbread Party
  How to Host a Gingerbread Party.
  Here you will find my suggestions on how to have a good time with great friends.
• Recipes and Supplies
  Look here for the absolute best recipes.
  This page includes the recipe for the gingerbread I use for house construction, the recipe for the icing I use as the "glue," and the recipes for the sugar cookies, hard candy, and sugar molds you will need for the incidentals. Most importantly, you will find the links to reference books and cake decorating suppliers.

  I have been contacted by several people looking for recipes for gingerbread cakes and cookies. I searched my entire cookbook library; and I have composed web pages for my entire gingerbread collection. I composed a separate page for the 18 cake recipes, a separate page for the 14 cookie and special treats recipes, and the very special heirloom recipes I found. You will find links to these pages on this web page as well.

• Help Me!
  My house is a disaster.
  So you're not a contractor, what can you do now? Look in this page for a possible solution.
• Personal Profile
  The author's/baker's page.
  This page contains some personal information you might find interesting.
• Special Thanks.
  "No man is an island....."
  This page is set aside to acknowledge everyone who has help me write this web site.

This web site was written by myself with the skills I acquired after attending a series of web page publishing classes at Lake Tahoe Community College in South Lake Tahoe, California.

I hope you will enjoy my site as much as I enjoyed composing the site, and I now enjoy maintaining it.

Thank you for spending some of your most valuable time with my web site.
If you enjoyed my site or you would like to share a gingerbread experience, please leave your comments in my guest book.
Thank you.

Sign My Guest Book

View My Guest Book

This guest book is provided free of charge by GuestWorld.com

Forward

Email me ; or contact me directly if I am online
I am eager to hear from you and happy to help.

This web page was created on November 7, 1999
by Margo Osti

Top of page