My childhood made out of sugar cookie! Welcome to the 1/36th scale buttery version of my parents’ house. It’s giving citrus and nostalgia. # 320: Lemon Sugar Cookie House

I’ve been wanting to make a giant cookie house since last Christmas, and finally set aside the time to tackle it! It felt like a no-brainer to base it on a real house, and the house I grew up in is a fascinating collection of columns and window embellishments. My original drawings were way more detailed but I ended up paring down the details in favor of durability. If I ever do a round two of this bake, I’ll be cutting out the windows to fill with hard candies, making box hedges out of green rice krispies and adding little wreathes to the front doors. And fully embracing the fact that it’s a three-day process: planning, baking and assembling. Maybe in another couple of years!

In lieu of the traditional gingerbread, I went with a buttery sugar cookie with lemon zest freckles. While gingerbread can be delicious, the crisp/crunchy version used for construction does nothing for me and the idea of baking up six batches worth and not eating it felt insane. I pivoted to this recipe from Zoë François and Dorie Greenspan which bakes up more like a shortbread (my kryptonite.)

Royal icing is honestly magic! It tastes like vanilla sugar, has a glossy sheen to it once dry and it sets like super glue. The secret ingredient, meringue powder, is mostly dried egg whites with a small amount of sugar, corn starch, and an acid like cream of tartar. The proteins in the egg whites restructure when whisked with water and sugar, trapping tiny air bubbles and forming new bonds that are then stabilized by the acid. It’s the delicious cement of the baking world.

I finished my initial drawing and immediately had to start crossing details off, like handrails. Note to future self: marzipan? pulled sugar if I’m feeling brave?

Felix wanted to help with the late-night butcher paper blocking. As a known paper-muncher, you can guess how quickly he was evicted from the kitchen.

I initially thought tripling the recipe would be sufficient. Naive, I know.

Wheeee

Space cadet that I am, I accidentally measured out the sugar and flour with a 1/3 measuring cup instead of a 1/2 measuring cup and only realized it when I went to make the second triple batch. The 1/2 measuring cup was giggling quietly in the drawer while I tried to figure out why the dough was so sticky. Sigh.

Crisis averted!

So. Many. Columns.

Assembly time!

I was worried that the big pieces would crumble on me, so I took pictures of each step that felt like a win just in case. Maintaining a “well at least I got that far!” attitude was surprisingly helpful.

The microplane is the unsung hero of this baking construction site. Determinedly correcting lumpy edges and whittling down rounded corners, leaving drifts of cookie dust in it’s wake.

Catch me running around the kitchen looking for things heavy enough to prop up the walls while the icing dried.

It’s standing all on it’s own! So proud.

So proud (and potentially delirious at this point), that I forgot about the porch entirely and attached the stairs directly to the front door. Oops.

Ta-da! All fixed.

Definitely thought the roof would be my downfall, despite all of the coasters and chocolate bars stacked up as rebar.

IT WORKED.

Ignoring the gaps in the roof and being really impressed with the accidentally free-floating porch.

Did you know that the decorative triangle on the roof is called a pediment? Tuck that away for your next bar trivia night.

I reveled in it for bit, but then took it over to my parents’ house so they could destroy it. I couldn’t bring myself to be the first person to break off a piece!

Happy munching!

Cookie recipe from: https://zoebakes.com/2018/12/23/holiday-sugar-cookies/