It's the most wonderful time of the year

Ok, these are a bit 'home style'. I was a bit preoccupied with mulling wine and singing along to Christmas tunes instead of concentrating on baking the impressive biscuits that these really deserved to be. A couple of them are a little burned high bake - but on the bright side the mulled wine was delicious!

I first saw these houses on my favourite blog Domestic Sluttery and had to make them IMMEDIATELY! What could possibly be better than tiny gingerbread houses with icing, silver balls and a good cup of tea? However my hopes of instant gratification were dashed when I discovered there was no sugar bling in Tesco Metro. Why no silver balls, Tesco? Humbug, I say! I reluctantly concluded that chocolate chips were not an adequate substitute for glitter and postponed the the bake until I could acquire the requisite decorations.

The dough itself was fairly easy to make. I ended up chilling it overnight which made it a bit of a bugger to roll out. We had no trouble using some stiff royal icing to stick the different sections together. The doorways unfortunately closed over in the oven so they're not going to sit on a mug but they'll taste pretty good with a nice cup of tea (or mulled wine!) nonetheless.

Coming soon - stay tuned for Christmas cake 2012!