Comments for Healing and Fun with Gingerbread

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Nov 20, 2007
 fantastic
by: emz

this is absolutly fantastic i could eat it all up yum also made me wonder if u have anything that doesent have all the colouring i so want to make my oldest daughter something but she isnt allowed colours
cheers
emz
Nov 21, 2007
 To Emz:
by: Darlene Barriere - webmaster

I gather your daughter is allergic to food dyes, and possibly other ingredients you'd find in gingerbread.

Years ago, when I ran a child daycare, there were too many children for me to supply a gingerbread house for each. Instead, I had all my daycare parents save their empty 250 and 500 mL milk and cream containers—I asked them to clean them, of course. Each child received one of these containers as their very own personal house to decorate. I cut out windows and doors (I folded the cut aways over so that the windows looked as though they had movable shutters, and the doors opened and closed). I had saved all the lids of the yogurt containers we'd used in the daycare, so each child received one of these lids to place their house on. I made a double batch of royal icing, "glued" the open spouts on their containers (houses) using the royal icing, then I let the children decorate their personal house and little yard in whatever fashion they desired. One of those children had an allergy to red and yellow food dyes, so as well as supplying Smarties, M & M candies and the always popular jelly beans, I also supplied foil-wrapped chocolates and scotch mints so that she could participate in the fun. Perhaps you could provide that option for your daughter, Emz.

If you have several of these small milk containers, you could make a village, complete with a church, a school and several houses. This works really well when you have a variety of sizes of containers. Always arrange the taller ones at the back and the smaller ones in the front. And if you have an old mirror laying around, consider using it as the base. Cut out a piece of paper in a circle, oval or kidney shape, place it on a clear spot on your mirror, then dust your completed village with sifted icing sugar. When you remove the paper, you'll be left with a cute little skating rink. Use Teddy Grahams or other such character-shaped crackers as skaters and little people in the landscaping. If you don't have a mirror, foil paper works well too. When I use foil, I use a finger nail to etch figure 8s for a more authentic skating scene.

Chicklets gum works well as a shutter, but it also works as shingles for a roof. Just start at the base of the roof and overlap each layer.

Once you start doing this with your children, you'll all start looking at candy, chocolate and crackers in a whole new way!

Darlene Barriere
Violence & Abuse Prevention Educator
Author: On My Own Terms, A Memoir

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