Rosen Clan Gingerbread House 2010: “Coming of Age”
Our gingerbread house recipe is dated 1989, so this is the 21st year since the first family gingerbread house. If you have not seen earlier versions they are housed on this page. This year, in honor of “coming of age” in California, we decided to make a pub to celebrate turning 21.
Tiki Bar complete with beer tap, beer mugs, cash register
Pool table
Beer pong table
Dartboard
Signs
Condom machine
Flowers
And more!
This is an overview of the house shot from the side. In the front left is the pub, named “Pub 21” in honor of our 21st year. To the left of the pub is a group of Christmas trees. To the immediate right is a beer garden. To the far right is an outhouse with a fence. To the far back right is a forest with a stream running into a pond. The base is a 4’ x 4’ piece of plywood covered with foil. Once the house is erected and all the stuff is put inside and outside, the ground is covered with coconut. Since this year we are showing a scene from the winter, the coconut is left white (as opposed to green like the covering for the trees in the back right. In the front there is a road (how else would the drinkers get the bar?) made of black beans with stripes made of rolled white tootsie rolls. Everything on the board is edible or at least made out of edible materials.
Here is the front of the pub. The gingerbread is a special recipe (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-16-li-367-story.html) made painstakingly the night before by Larry. The house itself was designed by Adam years ago (we went back to a simpler design this year) and each piece is rolled out and cut and baked with lots of care and love. This year not a single piece broke!
This is a closer view of the front of the house. Note the piles of snow in the front and the stepping stones and flowers by the door.
This is a closeup of the welcome sign. It is made with rolled candy and then the writing is made using the “glue” that is used to glue the building together (2 pounds of powered sugar, 6 egg whites and a couple of tsps of cream of tartar beat for 10 minutes to make it incredibly stiff and gooey).
Here is a closesup of the front door mat and the roses which are quite small and created, as always, by Adam.
To the left of the house are four different Christmas trees and a snowman. Each tree startes with an ice cream cone which is covered with fast drying sugar glue and then decorated with candy.
Behind the pub is a garden complete with two planters with roses, assorted flowers and gnomes. Out of the photo is a fountain.
A closeup of the rose planters.
The garden complete with gnomes and the fountain.
An overhead view of the beer garden. The artificial turf is made candy rolled thin. A sprinkling of snow is on the turf. The fence is made of pretzels. There are two tables with chairs, each with plates of food and quaffs. There is also an outside “tiki bar” with four stools, a bowl of pretzels and a credit card machine.
An aerial view of the beer garden. Note the plates of food. On the bottom I can see some French fries and I will fill in the types of food later.
A closeup of the tiki bar with the credit card machine and the pretzel bowl. A trashcan is behind the bar. Not the tiki bar is fronted with pretzels to give it that Hawaiian look.
One of the tables replete with a meal!
The other table and glass of beer to the upper right.
An aerial view of the pond with the trees in the background, a steam flowing into the pond, rocks around the pond, a person inexplicably floating on a raft (during the winter?), a skate rental shack and steps to the pond. In the bottom of the picture is a fish in the pond.
An overhead view.
Our “polar bear” swimmer wearing his suit in the bitter cold. Perhaps he had too much beer!
Note the water which is made by melting blue rock candy.
The rocks were made of white and brown tootsie rolls warmed up (by sitting on them) and then mixed together to give a variegated look. The “angry bird” sits to the side of the pond.
The ice skate rental shop with a shovel to the side and a pair of ice skates on the top.
A close up of the skates for rent.
Our typical outhouse complete with toilet inside. The sign says “No drinks past here” with the “drinks” shown as a bottle. To the right of the outhouse is a condom machine (no comment but it is a bar!)
On the property we put two lounge chairs with a table between them holding two beer mugs.
