Gingerbread House

Making a gingerbread house at Christmas time is a sort of tradition at our house, though we usually just buy a kit at the store. This year I tried something different. I made my own gingerbread! It would have been great, but I didn't roll the dough out enough so I ended up with VERY thick house! Here is a quick link to the recipe that I used for making the house:http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_a_gingerbread_house/

In the pictures, you see a blue blob kind of mass. That would be my attempt to make a beautiful smooth glassy looking pond out of melted jolly-ranchers. Things never turn out the way you want them to do they?

I tried to melt the jolly-ranchers in the microwave on a Styrofoam plate. I quickly found out that that didn't work because while they were microwaving, the candy started bubbling, and when I took them out there was a big hole burnt through the plate, and it had gotten all over the microwave and it started to get on me! I ran through the kitchen to the sink while my fingers were burning screaming, "HOT LAVA!!! LAVA!!!" I got calmed down, and then my family and I started to bust up laughing. I tried to eat the melting "lava", but it hardened on to my tooth! I tried scraping it off, then yanking it, and finally Nathan said, "Start sucking it!" It came off eventually. Yesterday was my first time making gingerbread, and boy was it dramatic, but fun! Hope you enjoy the pictures of the outcome of it.

The blue mass of "lava" (. . .sad)