Halloween 2011 - Swamp Water

I colored my icing with Forest Green and then watered it down to a "flood" consistency.  I put it into a squeeze bottle and then started covering my board using an off-set spatula to spread it out.  I didn't like the 1 tone of color, so I took another color called Avocado and dipped a paintbrush into the color, and then dotted the green water with it, then spread it out using the spatula.  It created the look I was going for.  While the icing was still wet, I added the gingerbread blobs and the pretzel log, along with everything else I wanted in the swamp water.

Halloween 2011 - Gingerbread Blobs

For lack of a better word....they're blobs!  I wanted to have some black in my swamp water, but wanted to stay away from black coloring because it would mix into the green icing, and I didn't want that.  So I made blobs with watered down gingerbread that I colored black.

Take gingerbread dough and add enough water to make it loose enough to pipe with a bag.  I used my hands to mix it up, as a spoon just wasn't cutting it.  After it was at a consistency that I could pipe it through a bag, I added some black coloring.  I then placed the dough into a piping back with a #3 round tip and created a bunch of shapes.  I baked at 350 for about 5-7 minutes.

Halloween 2011 - How To Make Cattails

When I decided on a swamp shack, I immediately thought of cattails!  But I had never made them before, so I did a little research and this is what I came up with.  I started with a piece of wire and added green fondant to it, keeping it as thin as possible, knowing that I had to build the brown around it.

I then added brown fondant, and wrapped it around the green.

Next came the leaves.  Taking the same green fondant as the stem, I rolled it out thin.  I then cut a leaf shape, and inserted a green toothpick.  To make it a little more believeable, I pushed the edges up, and on some of the leaves I added a bend to the top.



These are the pieces that I used to create a couple of groupings.

I let them dry overnight.  I grouped the different pieces together and stuck them into the styrofoam base.





Halloween 2011 - Keep Out Sign

Roll out your gingerbread dough and cut out a cross, leaving the edges a little jagged.  Since I am able to put things into my styrofoam base, I put a wire into the dough before I baked it.  If you forget, that's okay.  Just add the wire to the back of the baked cross using royal icing to attach it.  After it was baked, I added some white icing coloring to give it a weathered look.  I wasn't too thrilled with the effect, so I painted over it with some brown.  Later I added the words "keep out" in black royal icing.



Halloween 2011 - How To Make A Log Out Of A Pretzel Stick

I wanted to have a log floating in my swamp water, and came across some pretzel twists.  I simply took some brown icing gel color and painted it onto the pretzel.  Simple!



Halloween 2011 - The Dock

Time to assemble the dock.  I rolled out some gingerbread and cut them into thin strips, and as wide as I wanted the dock to be.  Using an exacto knife, I frayed the edges and added nail holes, then baked them.



The next step is to build the base for the dock, so I used the remaining 6 dowels that I had already prepared, and arranged them to the width that I wanted.  I glued them in place with royal icing, and then on top of the dowels, I place popsicle sticks.  Notice that the royal icing is brown.  I do this to match it to the gingerbread instead of having white everywhere.

I placed royal icing on top of the popsicle sticks and started placing my boards.



The finished dock.





Halloween 2011 - Assembly Of The Shack

After rolling out the dough and baking your gingerbread, assembly comes next.  Since it's a swamp shack, it needs to be elevated off the board.  I accomplish this by using wood dowels, cut to 1 1/4" lengths.  I then covered them in gingerbread and baked until firm.

I did 4 dowels for the house and 6 dowels for the dock.  Next, I prepared my base using a 12" round styrofoam and covered it with aluminum foil.

Next,  I assembled the house onto a cardboard base, covered in foil, that is the same size as the house.  I did this on the counter as opposed to on top of the dowels.  I then let the house dry enough so that it didn't collapse when I picked it up to place on the dowels.

I placed the 4 shack support dowels onto the base, using royal icing to glue them in place.

Using a piece of cardboard, I placed it on top of the dowels and pressed down, ensuring that all the dowels were the same height before putting on the house.



Finally, I picked up the house and placed it on the dowels.  As you can see, I positoned the house so that it hangs off the back a little bit.