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Faux Gingerbread Diner
The architecture has been squashed, you can't see through the windows, and it's not even real gingerbread. But who cares? It's a food model of a ReBoot building! Does life get any better?
You need:
- eggs
- cream of tartar
- confectioners' sugar
- graham crackers
- sugar wafers (assorted colors)
- matzos
- blue/teal decorating sugar
- cardboard
- scissors
- masking tape
- electric mixer & bowl
- sieve
- piping bag & decorating tips (or a zip-lock bag)
- knife
- plastic wrap
- waxed paper
- cake decorating plate or lazy susan (optional)
- miscellaneous cooking supplies
Step 1
Make the icing. With an electric mixer, beat 2 egg whites* with 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar until stiff. Gradually mix in 2 cups of sifted confectioners' sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form (approximately 10 minutes, depending on your mixer).
IMPORTANT: When you're not using the icing, keep a sheet of plastic wrap directly on top of the icing in the bowl. Otherwise you'll be left with a solid block of icing.
Step 2
Build the substructure. Cut a 3.5" by 12" strip of cardboard, bend it into an oval shape, and tape the ends together. Cut a 1 3/8" by 16" strip of cardboard, bend it into an oval shape, and fold in 1/2" at each end of the strip. Use tape and 1/2" cardboard spacers to attach the shorter stip around the taller strip, like in the picture below.
Step 3
Put some icing in a piping bag. If you don't have a piping bag: put the icing into a zip-lock bag, seal it, and cut off one of the bottom corners. Squeeze the bag to force the icing through the hole.
If you have a cake decorating plate or lazy susan, put your cardboard substructure on it. It's much easier to build the diner if you can rotate it while you work.
Step 4
Cut some pink sugar wafers in half. Use icing to stick sugar wafer halves all around the outside of the shorter cardboard strip.
The gap in the shorter cardboard strip is the doorway. Stick a whole vanilla sugar wafer onto the taller cardboard strip as a door.
Step 5
Break some graham crackers along the little dotted lines (so they're the smaller rectangular size). Stand a graham cracker piece on top of the sugar wafer layer, and lean it back to rest on the taller strip of cardboard. Use icing to hold it in place. Repeat the process all the way around the oval, "trimming" the graham crackers for a better fit as necessary. Frame the door with graham cracker pieces as well.
Step 6
Use a knife to cut the corners of a matzo into a more rounded shape. This may take a little practice, so make sure you have extra matzos on hand.
Pipe stripes of icing onto the edges of your rounded matzo. Sprinkle blue sugar onto the icing stripes. (This is meant to vaguely simulate the diner's awning.)
Use icing to stick the matzo on top of everything else you've built so far.
Step 7
Stack up two layers of graham crackers like in the picture below. Round off the corners, and stick them on top of the matzo with icing.
Step 8
Here's the tricky part. Use a good knife to carve out the shape of the diner sign from graham cracker. Stand the sign up on top of the roof with icing, and hold in place until it's set.
TIPS: Cut from the side of the cracker, not the top. It's easier to work with two graham cracker squares than a big rectangle. You can reattach the squares from behind with icing and a graham cracker scrap when you're done. Keep plenty of extra graham crackers around, and practice until you get it. It's not impossible, I promise!
Step 9
Lay a sheet of waxed paper out on a flat surface. Use your piping bag to draw out the letters from the diner sign. Write each word several times, because it's easy to break icing letters. Let the letters dry completely, then carefully pull them off of the waxed paper. Use a small amount of icing to stick the letters to the graham cracker sign.
Step 10
Go over all of the seams with prettier icing lines-- you can use a fancier decorative tip on your piping bag if you have one. Add icicles if you want it to look wintery. You can also stick on candies, use colored icing, or add anything else you'd see on a regular gingerbread house.
*Food safety tip: If you want to eat the icing, replace the raw eggs with powdered egg whites. Not that it's particularly tasty icing, but I don't want you to end up in the hospital after absentmindedly licking your fingers. (I don't care what the kids on the playground told you. Salmonella ain't cool, baby.)
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