A Gingerbread Shed?

Published: 22/12/2017

Imagine if we built a shed from gingerbread... Inspired by the literary classic, Hansel and Gretel, we took a classic gingerbread house recipe and scaled it up to see how much it would take to produce one of our bestselling sheds. Standing at just under 2 metres and with a surface area about 526 times the size of the original recipe, it’s fair to say we would need a fair amount of extra ingredients.

Now all we need to do is find an oven big enough to bake it!

Recipe

Gingerbread 197.25 Kg of butter 157.8 Kg of dark muscovado sugar 78.9 Kg of golden syrup 473 kg of flour 526 tbsp. of bicarbonate of soda 1052 tbsp. of ground ginger

Icing sugar 1578 egg whites 335 kg of sugar 1578 tsp lemon juice

Oven size 2 metres deep 1.5 metres wide

Calories The shed has approximately 187,256 calories. Although we wouldn’t recommend a diet of solely gingerbread, you could in theory, survive on it for 267 days. That’s only if it doesn’t go out of date though. Gingerbread generally has a shelf life of about 3-4 weeks, but can last from 6-8 months if frozen.

Preparation

1. Preheat giant oven.
2. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup together in a cement mixer. Sieve the flour bicarbonate of soda and ginger in to a skip and make a well in the middle.  Pour in the melted butter mixture and stir.
3. When cool enough to touch, roll out using small steamroller or very large rolling pin until around 15cm thick. Using the above measurements cut in to correct sizes using garden shears, spade or other cutting implement.
4. Lift pieces on to baking paper on your custom made baking tray (2m x 3 m). May need up to 4 people to carry.
5. Bake on a low heat until golden brown. This may take some time. Once removed, cut your window and door out as per the specifications. Keep the door for later, feel free to enjoy the window as a snack or family meal.
6. To make icing, separate your 1,578 eggs and whisk the whites in a paddling pool until frothy. Stir using a canoe paddle and add the icing sugar a shovel full at a time. Stir in the lemon juice until your mixture is stiff.
7. PLEASE NOTE: You may need to create foundations for your shed. We recommend using a milk chocolate base. For further instructions, please see your local chocolatier.
8. To form your shed, lift all four walls together and use a piping bag to mould each edge together with your icing sugar. Stick the roof together separately and lift on top, piping on the top of your four walls for a secure fit. Place door in place and using icing sugar to close the shed.
9. Decorate as desired.
10. Enjoy your new shed, and just hope it doesn’t rain…

DISCLAIMER: Door may not be fully functional.