Gingerbread house under construction

Earlier this year I decided I would like to attempt to make my first ever gingerbread house over this festive period. I've been so busy with work that it seemed the possibility of this actually happening was fading fast, and then my rather lovely boyfriend bought me a copy of Baked & Delicious which came with a mould for a gingerbread house. I just couldn't resist, here's how it turned out:

It may not be the neatest, most perfectly decorated gingerbread house the world has ever seen, but it stands up on its own, and I'm pretty pleased with it. The gingerbread isn't bad either...

I took some photos along the way of making it that I thought I'd share on here.

It was one of the most time-consuming things I've ever baked, I think I would have cried if it had all fallen apart at the last stage, and I now don't want to destroy it by eating it, but if you have time then I'd definitely give it a go. I thought I didn't have much to decorate it with, turns out I had quite a lot of potential gingerbread decorations tucked away in a box (I don't know about you, but I shouldn't be left alone in baking sections of supermarkets, or shops like Lakeland, my bank balance does not appreciate it!).
I plan to make another one in the future (though perhaps not turn it into the yearly practice that I thought it might turn into), but here are a few tips from my experience this year.
- Do as much of the decorating as you can before constructing the house, it's a lot easier, and prevents too much icing running down the side.
- Allow a whole afternoon, or more, to make it, so you have enough time for things to set properly.
- Use cans of food to hold it all together until the icing has dried enough for it to stand on its own (a second pair of hands comes in handy at this stage!).
- If you are making your own icing, make sure it's nice and thick so it doesn't do what some of my white icing did and run down the house, covering some of the other decorations.

All in all, have fun doing it. I'd love to see photos of other people's attempts.

If I don't post again before Christmas, merry Christmas to you all.