Birthday Gingerbread Decorating

Birthday Gingerbread Decorating and other gingerbread creations are a great way of making birthday catering that will fit just about any children's birthday party theme.

What's even better is that letting the children decorate the gingerbread themselves can be an easy and fun party activity.

If you have enough free time and enjoy baking, why not create the gingerbread from scratch. This will allow you to create unique gingerbread shapes that will fit just about any theme. Birthday Gingerbread Decorating is also be a great activity to do with your children the day before to help control any pre birthday over excitement.

You can buy pastry cutters in a huge variety of shapes online or from catering shops. If you have a steady hand you could even try cutting your own shapes with a knife. There are a huge number of gingerbread recipes on the internet, but one of my favorite gingerbread recipes can be seen below.

If however you're too busy with other party preparations or life in general to create the gingerbread you should be able to find a variety of ready made ginger bread shapes from most supermarkets or bakeries.

To decorate the gingerbread men you will need tubes of icing. The best option is probably buying tubes of ready made writing icing. These tubes tend to be quite small so you can buy a wide range of colors and enough to make sure none of the children have to wait to long for their turn. The other advantage of buying the icing is that there will be a lot less washing up after the party. However if you do wish to make your own icing, you can do this by mixing a thick paste from confectionary sugar, egg whites, a few teaspoons of boiling water and food coloring. Put each color you mix in its own separate icing bag.

Prepare the gingerbread and icing prior to the party, then when the activity begins put a table cloth on a table or tables large enough for all the guests. (Choose an old table cloth or a disposable one as this can be a messy activity.) Give each of the children a gingerbread shape and leave them to be creative.

Once the gingerbread is decorated they can either eat the biscuits then and there or take them home.

Birthday Gingerbread Decorating can be incorporated into almost any theme such as:

Super hero theme parties - the guests can create the costumes of their favorite or imagined super heroes

Dinosaur theme parties - you can give them gingerbread cut into dinosaur shapes and allow them to color the dinosaurs as they imagine them.

Princess theme birthdays - they can make gingerbread decorated in the shapes of castles, and crowns.

For sports theme birthday parties the children can design the kits for the players, or recreate that of their favorite team

Gingerbread Recipe

If you do decide to bake your own gingerbread there are numerous different recipes, but here is one of my favorites.

• 210g Plain Flour
• 75g Butter
• ¼ tea spoon of Salt
• 1 tea spoon baking powder
• 1 teas spoon baking soda
• 70 grams Sugar
• 1 Egg (beaten)
• 50ml Orange Juice
• 400g Bran
• 4tsp Ground Ginger
• 1tsp Nutmeg
• 1 tea spoon Mixed Spices

1. Heat the oven to gas mark 4 (180°C)
2. Blend the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, bran and spices into the margarine to create a bread crumb like texture.
3. Add the sugar and egg and Orange Juice to create a dough
4. Roll the dough out thinly onto a floured surface
5. Use gingerbread man shaped cutters to cut shapes
6. Place cookies on a greased baking tray
7. Cook 20 mins

-- Birthday Gingerbread Decorating --

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