I had never celebrated so vividly the Christmas period before I moved in Norway!! There are so many things to do and events to participate that you have to try hard to escape them! & I have no intention to do so for no reason! Christmas are fantastic and super cozy here!
Yeah, yeah I know the true meaning of Christmas doesn't lie on the little lights or the presents ect ect... Well, I agree but is it very bad that I hopelessly enjoy social events and cozy gatherings? I love the wealth of excuses to gather and party, I enjoy the abandon of interaction and high spirits, I enjoy that I meet beloved ones that I usually don't. There is always a ''consumer'' aspect in which more or less we all give in but if I'm to be blamed, blame me for the party animal side of mine more than anything else!
One of the super fun gatherings is to build a pepperkakehus! Prepare some gløgg, put some Christmas music and get ready for tones of fun!
Last year, since it was my first attempt I had bought for back up two ready ones and extra dough to bake one and make it from scratch. We had amazing time! Hilarious moments when everything collapsed and had to be glued again, troubles with icing and some serious stability issues that our structural engineer had to take care of when the rest of us quited! : D
We ended up with a very unique peperkakesommerhus and two masterpieces!
Wisdom gained; apply icing with a syringe!
Makes things really easy!! And clean!
This year we went for a Stjerneslott! From the NTNU pepperkakehus page. Ok the norwegian may be a problem but all you really need is the pattern and how many times to reproduce the pieces. Go brave and have fun! I certainly doubted that we would manage to fix it... more than once I have to admit.
But we actually did!! :D
But we actually did!! :D
Here are some advice and photos of the fantastic 5hr that took 5 people to construct it!
Advice No1; never remove the star before placing it on the pan! Apply a lot of flour or cut the piece on the pan.
The pieces came out a bit (a lot) uneven even if we tried hard to shape them as good as possible. I was told afterwards that you can fix the shape by cutting the edges directly after you take them out of the oven and while they are still warm. Next year!
Advice No2: Don't burn them! Not them nor your hands (true sugar story...sweet)! :P
Advice No3: Burn sugar instead!! This is the best way to attach each of the pieces even if the gaps are huge!
Advice No 4; Have enough dough and keep the oven warm to make new pieces. My lovely hands managed to break several during the gluing process!
Advice No 5; See where the two parts overlap, glue just there. Believe me it's enough!
Advice No 6 ; Go crazy with the decoration!!!
Many thanks to my friends for the great great pepperkakehus evenings both in 2011 and this year!
