Alright, listen up, y’all! We gonna talk about this here… uh… ginger…bread… house… thingy. Yeah, gingerbread house template, that’s it. My grandbaby, she wants one, and wouldn’t you know it, I gotta figure this whole mess out.
First off, what the heck is a template anyway? Sounds fancy. But from what I gather, it’s like a pattern, you know? Like when I used to sew dresses back in the day. You need a pattern so your dress don’t look like a potato sack, right? Same deal with this gingerbread house. You need a gingerbread house template so your house don’t look like a pile of… well, you know.
Now, where to find these templates? The young’uns, they say look on the “inter-net.” Sounds like a big spider web to me, but I guess that’s where everything is these days. So I went on there, poked around, and yup, there they were. Lots of ‘em! Some are simple, just squares and triangles. Some are fancy, with little windows and doors and whatnot.
- Simple ones are good if you’re like me and ain’t got all day.
- Fancy ones are nice if you wanna show off, I guess.
But here’s the thing, these templates… they come in all shapes and sizes. Some say “cut 2” or “cut 4.” What’s that all about? Took me a while, but I figured it out. It means you gotta cut that piece out that many times! Like, if it says “cut 2” for the side of the house, you need two of ‘em. Makes sense, right? You need two sides to a house!
And the sizes… oh, the sizes! They got these numbers like “3 inches” or “4 inches.” That’s how big the piece is supposed to be. Now, I ain’t got no fancy ruler, but I got a good eye. I just kinda eyeball it, you know? Close enough is good enough, I always say. If it’s a little crooked, who cares? It’s a gingerbread house, not the White House! Making a gingerbread house should be fun, not a headache.
Now, once you got your gingerbread house template printed out, you gotta cut it out. Careful now, don’t go pokin’ your eye out with them scissors! I like to use the big ol’ kitchen scissors, the ones I use for cuttin’ chicken. They work just fine. Then you lay that template on your gingerbread dough and cut around it. Easy peasy.
Some of these templates, they got fancy parts, like a chimney or a porch. My grandbaby, she wants a chimney. Says Santa needs a way to get in. Bless her heart. So, I gotta cut out a chimney too. It’s a little fiddly, but I manage. The thing about the gingerbread house pattern is, the more details it has, the harder it is. But if your grandkid wants a chimney, a chimney they shall have.
And then there’s the roof. That’s important, right? You don’t want your gingerbread family getting rained on! The roof pieces are usually big and kinda slanted. You gotta make sure they fit together nice and snug. Sometimes, I gotta trim ‘em a little bit to make ‘em fit. No big deal. A little snip here, a little snip there, and it’s all good.
One more thing I learned about these templates… some of ‘em are color-coded. That means each piece is a different color, so you know which one goes where. That’s actually kinda helpful, especially if you got a lot of pieces. It’s like a puzzle, you know? You gotta fit all the pieces together to make the whole picture. But I ain’t colorblind, I can usually tell which is the gingerbread house roof template and which is the side.
So, there you have it. That’s what I know about gingerbread house templates. It ain’t rocket science, but it ain’t exactly a walk in the park neither. But hey, if an old woman like me can figure it out, so can you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go bake some gingerbread. My grandbaby’s waitin’!
And remember, the best gingerbread house template is the one that gets the job done and makes your grandbaby smile. It don’t have to be perfect. It just has to be made with love. That’s what really matters, right? And maybe a little bit of icing. Lots of icing, actually. Kids love icing.
