Sunday, November 13, 2011

Victorian Splendor - FINISHED!

Well it's finally done, actually it was finally done Monday evening, delivered on Tuesday, but I gave myself a small breather before completing the blog. The last blog left off with me having finished putting the tiles ( cocunut cookies) on one roof.  The rest of the roof got the tiles and this is what it ended up looking like:

So, as the tile dried, I kept looking at it and I kept thinking.....the color isn't right.  To me it ended up looking too much like a cottage and I wanted something a bit nicer.....so I mixed up some blue.....more of a slate blue really, how I came up with that, I don't know.  Maybe it was my Gramma Elsie giving me ideas from heaven.....but however I came up with it,  I totally LOVED the look it gave the house.  My thought is, you either will hate it or love it. LOL


So, with the roof complete, the fence and trim work was next.......well.....as I started to place trim work in place, it started breaking.....and let me tell you.....it was one of those moments, when your mouth drops open, and you are in complete shock.....I had days left to complete this whole project and my delicate lace pieces, that in my opinion would make the house look like I wanted it too, were breaking!

so, it was back to piping more pieces to let them dry.  The second time around, I used a bigger tip and made them a bit ticker in hopes that they wouldn't break and apparently that worked, because here it is with the pieces intact!  WOO HOO!
I also started piping royal icing vines and leaves up the side on the house to give it a little character and I love, love, love how that all turned out.  I made a wood pile with complete with a chopping block and a little pond with a small duck in front....all those little details in my opinion, make the whole thing come together.  So, here is the whole thing before the "snow:

The snow was the last thing to do, which was simply done by putting powered sugar in a sifter and sprinkling it all over the top.  It added that last little detail that truly transformed it into my vision of  Victorian Splendor!



So there you have it.....I finished it, and I didn't kill the designer either, so all in all, very proud at my 2nd gingerbread house.  Here is the final photo, that was set on the table with my gingerbread house.....kind of cool seeing my name before pastry chef.......I'm not a real pastry chef but I do love to bake and decorate. LOL

I hope you all enjoyed following me through this project and thank you for your support.....you'll never know how much that kept me going!  Next project is holiday cookies and I don't have all that much time left so I better get to it.!!