A Festive Gingerbread House for Christmas

Aldi sells enough gingerbread houses to measure the height of 20 London Shards!

Aldi’s bestselling gingerbread house has seen impressive sales since it launched in store for the festive season.  The 14cm tall house comes ready built and comes with a large tube of royal icing and all the sweets and candies needed to transform it into a beautiful, festive centrepiece!

Aldi has sold enough gingerbread houses to measure 6,370 metres, which is the equivalent of 20 London Shard’s – the tallest building in the UK – or  425 double-decker buses, 66 Big Ben’s, 40 Blackpool Tower’s or 1,158 Giraffes!

That is a lot of gingerbread houses!

We were sent one and were really impressed with it.  Freddy and Ella had some festive fun together decorating it. Having it ready constructed made it such an easy project and the end result was very good.  At just £4.89 it is a great buy, taking all the hard work out of making a gingerbread house for Christmas.

To celebrate their festive food sales, Aldi erected a giant replica of the Aldi gingerbread house in Manchester’s city centre, standing over 9 ft. tall, 10 ft. wide and 16 ft. deep.  A ‘Mrs Claus’ and jolly team of Aldi elves were on hand to welcome Christmas shoppers with a taster of some seasonal Aldi Christmas treats too – including gingerbread men.

Joint Managing Director for Corporate Buying at Aldi, Tony Baines, said: 

“We hope our giant replica of the gingerbread house kit brought some festive fun in the midst of one of the busiest shopping days in the lead up to Christmas and that our Aldi elves inspired shoppers to discover and enjoy all that Aldi has to offer.”

For more information about Aldi’s Christmas range, please visit www.aldi.co.uk.

Our Gingerbread House

I am not the most talented or creative cook out there, but I do love baking with my kids.  I've always wanted to try to make a gingerbread house with them but figured it was a bit out of my league.  When I saw that Lakeland were selling silicone moulds I had to get myself down there to buy myself one.  I was a little bit ridiculously excited at the prospect of building a little house with Ella, Kizzy and Freddy out of gingerbread and sweeties!

We followed the recipe on the pack and pressed the dough into the moulds before cooking it.  It was easy enough for me and my team to do!

When it was cool we turned it out and stuck it together with some thick icing.  We only had a few slight subsidence issues!  When it was set solid, I set Kizzy and Freddy loose on it with chocolate buttons and Jelly Tots and a tube of icing.

They really enjoyed doing it and had so much fun.  I loved Fred's colour co-ordinated windows!  

Breaking it apart to eat was just as enjoyable and it tasted really good.  This is definitely going to be a new family tradition!

Decorating Gingerbread Christmas Trees #Project52

We have been making and decorating gingerbread.  Freddy has been enjoying helping out with the mixing, rolling and icing.  He has also enjoyed helping out with taste testing!

Fairytale Favours and Gingerbread Men!!

I live in Market Drayton, a small market town in North Shropshire which has been the home of gingerbread for the past 200 years.  The original recipe included rum in the ingredients and was enjoyed after being dipped in port!  However, over the years gingerbread has become far more fun (and a lot less boozy!)  Image on Food is a local company that has been lovingly creating gingerbread novelties for over 20 years.  Each piece is handcrafted using the finest ingredients and then is beautifully hand decorated by a team of skilled gingerbread decorators.  With top of the range technology, they can produce any shape, logo or design and supply customers from little farm shops through to major coffee house chains!

Fairytale Favours is Image on Foods online retail shop supplying their products directly to us...the public!  They create gorgeous edible gifts that can be posted to UK of BFPO addresses.  Their range of beautiful, handmade gingerbread cookies are perfect for any occasion.   They can provide unique wedding favours to make your special day even more special.  How about a cookie card to celebrate an upcoming birthday!  Celebrate the birth of a new baby with a baby bundle.  A Super Dad cookie would make the perfect Father's Day gift!  For a really impressive gift for birthdays, as a Get Well or Thank you present or just to say "I Love You" you could order a splendid Cookie Bouquet.  Much tastier than a bunch of flowers!!

I was thrilled to be given a Cookie Bouquet to sample.  It consists of six large, colourful, iced gingerbread flowers and a traditional gingerbread man displayed lovingly in a tin.  Each cookie is hand finished and wrapped in cellophane for freshness.  The bouquet is wrapped and tied with ribbon to create a beautiful and original gift...the sweetest way to show you care!!  A personalised greetings card is included and the gift can be dispatched on the same day if ordered by 12 noon from Monday to Thursday.  Delivery is free via courier.

The cookie bouquets will keep fresh for up to 3 months.  But there is no way they will last that long!!

The gingerbread is thick, crunchy and tastes delicious.  The icing is so pretty and all the colourings are completely natural. Each cookie is a good size.  The flowers are each over 4" across.

The cookie bouquet would make an amazing centrepiece to a table, ready for your guests to nibble on after dinner!  The appeal crosses the generations.  Freddy is 2 and he was delighted with the appearance of the cookie bouquet.  He was very excited to be given a gingerbread flower to munch on!

"Ooh look at this!  I want that one!"

"Lolly!!"

The cookies are mounted on sticks which have a sharp bottom where they are mounted into a polystyrene base, so we had to chop off the spike for Freddy to eat his "lolly" as he called it!  He actually loved having it on a stick and thought it was real fun to carry it about, licking the icing and chomping on the biccie!

Licking the icing!

Freddy loves it!!

Kids and adults alike love gingerbread and Fairytale Favours has a design for everyone. From farmyard animals to bugs to stars to teddy bears! They even have a Help for Heroes range featuring an RAF bear, a Navy bear, a Marine bear and an Army bear which helps support the worthwhile charity. 

You can order online on the site,  by post, fax or email and if you don't see exactly what you want you can call for help and information.  So if you are having a wedding, a hen night or if you want gingerbread for a corporate event, give them a ring!

The Cookie Bouquet that we received for this review is priced at £34.95 and available for free same day dispatch by courier if ordered on Mon-Thurs before 12pm.  You are able to personalise the ribbon colour and include a personalised gift card to make a completely unique gift for the lucky recipient.

Have a look at their Facebook Page and check out photos of their amazing creations (including their new summer designs for John Lewis!) and follow them on Twitter  for up to date news.

Image on Food is definitely a company that we Market Draytonians are rightfully proud of!!