IKEA Gingerbread House

There aren't many things you can't find at IKEA these days.  Let's be honest - most European city dwellers under the age of 40 can walk through their friends' apartments and name the products...Billy, PAX, Stolmen, Lack... all present and accounted for!

What I was surprised to find in December was an IKEA Gingerbread House kit

 

We posted last year on cool gingerbread houses - not only am I a huge admirer of such creative endeavors, but I've always wanted to make one. Sweets and architecture are both things I love!

Given our busy schedule, it was too ambitious to bake the whole thing. Buying a kit seemed the best plan. After all the IKEA stuff we've assembled in the past 2 months, I HAD to try this! 

I wasn't quite sure what I'd find inside. I was pleased to find the neatly designed packaging and the standard IKEA picture instruction booklet. 

However, I was surprised to find that this IKEA project did not come ready to assemble. It was missing some key components - the icing! Many kits come with tubes of icing, so I'd expected this one would also. (there was no other writing on the packaging to indicate what was included or not). It's like buying an Expedit that has no screws!

It did include a recipe for icing, but I really had no time before Christmas. So, back in the cupboard went the Pepparkaka Hus and with it my dreams of any Christmas decoration this year.

Fast forward to the new year...we're moving full steam ahead with lots of home improvement projects and very early spring cleaning. And I'm resolving to put some Christmas in my life this year, at random times in the year. Why not start now?

While making a cool gingerbread house is still on the project list for someday soon, I went the fully lazy route and bought a couple tubes of icing and a set of cookie decorations.

First, the assembly:

Let me just say that a gingerbread house sitting in the living room smells intoxicatingly good. That sweet and spicy smell....so good...but I had to wait until I decorated it and had photographic evidence before testing its taste.

One little goal accomplished.

Update on Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 10:00 by Frau A

Today, the chimney is gone. And a couple of the chocolate candies on top.

It is as tasty as it smelled - IKEA makes good gingerbread...just like its meatballs and Swedish chocolate torte.

I had feared it would be another Lebkuchenherz type of thing - no matter how hungry or drunk at Oktoberfest you are, trust me, they do NOT taste good!