Gingerbread House With Candy Canes

About this drawing

A gingerbread house, with its frosted roof and candy trim, is one of the most impressive treats of the season. Its story is closely tied to Germany and to one very famous fairy tale.

Spiced honey cakes called Lebkuchen were baked in Germany as far back as the Middle Ages. In the early 1800s, the Brothers Grimm published Hansel and Gretel, in which two children discover a house made of bread and sweets deep in the forest. After that, gingerbread houses grew more and more popular.

German bakers began building them with cookie walls glued together with icing, and the tradition spread across Europe and to America. Today, towns and bakeries hold contests to see who can make the most creative house.

Building one as a family is about as cozy as it gets: bake the pieces, assemble them carefully and cover everything with candy, gumdrops and frosting. The hardest part is usually not eating it before it is finished. Some builders get very ambitious, adding tiny lights inside, windows made of melted hard candy and whole sugar gardens. Each one becomes a small edible work of art that is almost too pretty to eat.

• gingerbread house
• candy
• christmas
• fairy tales