Gingerbread Church

Before I knew it, I had opened my mouth and the words, "I can make a Gingerbread House Church to raffle!" had fallen out. This happens to me a lot - words spilling forth, unrestrained.

The idea came to me as a way to contribute to our pasta dinner fundraiser. I have a soft spot for gingerbread houses, and my personal claim to baking fame, was in 1994 or so, when I coordinated the school-wide Gingerbread house making - one house per family grouping - in one of three sizes, depending upon the size of the family. I wonder if any of the kids at Whitefish Bay remember that? The Grade 9s and I made the dough, rolled, baked and bagged 63 or so packages of house parts, then we had everyone assemble in the gym for decorating.

I thought it would be nice to do something unique, so tonight I spent about ninety minutes converting some photos of Grace Christian Reformed Church, into a cardboard model. Tomorrow, I'll create waxed paper cutouts, measured more accurately, to conform to the cardboard model. Then later this week, I will make the dough, roll and bake. The plan is to have my Church School class do the actual decorating - although I'm considering doing the main assembly myself. I have begun acquiring candies for that epic event.

Here's the church I am trying to turn edible:

Here's my version:

Here's the back view:

And my attempt:

As you may have gathered, in addition to Accounting difficulties, I struggle with basic design concepts!

I'll post the finished product - this much effort has to be chronicled!