Christmas Craft: A Gingerbread House
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I carried Ewan and Faye up onto our Snowman Christmas Advent Calendar on the mirror and we looked for the Day 6 pocket. There, they found a cut-out Gingerbread Man and his house! They sang, "Run run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man." Little did they know, they were about to make a Gingerbread House at Shangri-La Hotel that morning!
A Gingerbread House is made out of crisp ginger biscuit covered with a variety of candies and icing. It is a popular Christmas decoration, often built by children with the help of their parents. Ewan finally crossed the minimum age of three and I jumped on the opportunity to bring the family in for this wholesome activity. The pair of tin soldiers that greeted us at the entrance of Magnolia Room livened up the cold and quiet corridor. I say they were the perfect bouncers to welcome little children to a room full of candies! Come unaccompanied by a kid, Sorry No Entry.
Looking in, we saw a life-size Santa carrying a sack of presents! There's something about Santa Claus that makes children light up with glee. He is the Christmas magic who tells you to be good if you want a little puppy this Yuletide season. I wanted to give this Claus a big hug and a kiss just because he looked so sprightly!
As I was getting all excited with the tin soldiers, Santa and the crisply ironed mini chef's apron, Ewan and Faye ran off to the buffet table filled with donuts, cakes and chocolates! These are delicacies in the eyes of a child and I bet I saw a twinkle in Ewan's when he spotted a candy cane. To up the happiness level for every kid that visited, Shangri-La set up two buffet lines (one on each far end)! One line was for candy collection to decorate their gingerbread house and the other was for hungry little imps to indulge in. At the end of it all, my children had a candy feast popping gummy bears and rainbow sprinkles more than they did decorating the gingerbread house. Oh look how he ran and skipped towards them. The smell of sweets in the air made us all quite high!
This is an annual event conducted by Area Executive Pastry Chef Hervé Potus and he is an approachable man to strike up a chat with. It is not often that men behind spatulas can be good with children but he is! He caught my excitement as I popped gummies alongside my children and couldn't stop photographing everything in the room. Chef Potus went, "Ahhh.. Look who is enjoying it more? The parent or the child?" I say we both did!
Pastry Chef Chane Lee came over to assist Ewan with his Gingerbread House modelling. She passed Ewan a tube of royal icing and they both set the house up in a swift and easy manner. I wonder if Ewan was fascinated by this white "glue" that tasted so good! The icing hardens when dry and holds the pieces of gingerbread together. Chef Chane left the main bulk of the work to Ewan and refrained from taking over as much as possible. She showed him how to place each triangle and square of gingerbread and allowed the boy to top his own chimney. She left us to spend the next 15 minutes decorating the house as a family. There was no uncomfortable intrusion and help was rendered as soon as we looked like we were struggling.
As this is a children's workshop, it was conducted in an ad hoc fashion. There were no rules, no fixed time schedule to follow or a chef standing behind a head table giving instructions to a room filled with little people (who will not be able to concentrate with sweets all around them by the way)! As soon as a mini pastry-chef-to-be arrives, he/she will be allowed to wander about and commence whenever they wish. A chef will then arrive at their workstation to kick-start the modelling process. Again, at each child's own pace and preference. Just let the creativity juices run wild! Each session is a 90-minute block and you can choose to arrive any time within that time frame to make your Gingerbread House.
The daddy and I were both eager to be part of this decoration process. I started to shower the house with rainbow sprinkles and daddy wrote, "Mah Mah" on one side of the roof with the icing. We decided to dedicate this Gingerbread House to the grandmother (Mah Mah) because it was her birthday! Ewan and Faye sat there, chomping down sweets while watching us do the job. We looked at each other, puzzled as to how this ended up becoming our project. We pried their hands open and pleaded them to give up some gummy bears and M&Ms for the house! Can you imagine? *hahah* They had their year's worth of candy intake at one seating. It is after all Christmas! I allowed no limit to their intake for that hour just because (although the daddy kept going Oh No No NO That's too Much!)
We were all ginger-proud of our Gingerbread House and it is such a meaningful family affair. I guarantee fun for the whole family. We might just put this in our Christmas Advent Calendar activity perpetually! The workshop ended with Ewan sieving snow over the house. I could almost hear Jingle Bells ringing in the background as he shook the icing over the roof.
I carried Ewan and Faye up onto our Snowman Christmas Advent Calendar on the mirror and we looked for the Day 6 pocket. There, they found a cut-out Gingerbread Man and his house! They sang, "Run run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man." Little did they know, they were about to make a Gingerbread House at Shangri-La Hotel that morning!
A Gingerbread House is made out of crisp ginger biscuit covered with a variety of candies and icing. It is a popular Christmas decoration, often built by children with the help of their parents. Ewan finally crossed the minimum age of three and I jumped on the opportunity to bring the family in for this wholesome activity. The pair of tin soldiers that greeted us at the entrance of Magnolia Room livened up the cold and quiet corridor. I say they were the perfect bouncers to welcome little children to a room full of candies! Come unaccompanied by a kid, Sorry No Entry.
Looking in, we saw a life-size Santa carrying a sack of presents! There's something about Santa Claus that makes children light up with glee. He is the Christmas magic who tells you to be good if you want a little puppy this Yuletide season. I wanted to give this Claus a big hug and a kiss just because he looked so sprightly!
As I was getting all excited with the tin soldiers, Santa and the crisply ironed mini chef's apron, Ewan and Faye ran off to the buffet table filled with donuts, cakes and chocolates! These are delicacies in the eyes of a child and I bet I saw a twinkle in Ewan's when he spotted a candy cane. To up the happiness level for every kid that visited, Shangri-La set up two buffet lines (one on each far end)! One line was for candy collection to decorate their gingerbread house and the other was for hungry little imps to indulge in. At the end of it all, my children had a candy feast popping gummy bears and rainbow sprinkles more than they did decorating the gingerbread house. Oh look how he ran and skipped towards them. The smell of sweets in the air made us all quite high!
This is an annual event conducted by Area Executive Pastry Chef Hervé Potus and he is an approachable man to strike up a chat with. It is not often that men behind spatulas can be good with children but he is! He caught my excitement as I popped gummies alongside my children and couldn't stop photographing everything in the room. Chef Potus went, "Ahhh.. Look who is enjoying it more? The parent or the child?" I say we both did!
Pastry Chef Chane Lee came over to assist Ewan with his Gingerbread House modelling. She passed Ewan a tube of royal icing and they both set the house up in a swift and easy manner. I wonder if Ewan was fascinated by this white "glue" that tasted so good! The icing hardens when dry and holds the pieces of gingerbread together. Chef Chane left the main bulk of the work to Ewan and refrained from taking over as much as possible. She showed him how to place each triangle and square of gingerbread and allowed the boy to top his own chimney. She left us to spend the next 15 minutes decorating the house as a family. There was no uncomfortable intrusion and help was rendered as soon as we looked like we were struggling.
As this is a children's workshop, it was conducted in an ad hoc fashion. There were no rules, no fixed time schedule to follow or a chef standing behind a head table giving instructions to a room filled with little people (who will not be able to concentrate with sweets all around them by the way)! As soon as a mini pastry-chef-to-be arrives, he/she will be allowed to wander about and commence whenever they wish. A chef will then arrive at their workstation to kick-start the modelling process. Again, at each child's own pace and preference. Just let the creativity juices run wild! Each session is a 90-minute block and you can choose to arrive any time within that time frame to make your Gingerbread House.
The daddy and I were both eager to be part of this decoration process. I started to shower the house with rainbow sprinkles and daddy wrote, "Mah Mah" on one side of the roof with the icing. We decided to dedicate this Gingerbread House to the grandmother (Mah Mah) because it was her birthday! Ewan and Faye sat there, chomping down sweets while watching us do the job. We looked at each other, puzzled as to how this ended up becoming our project. We pried their hands open and pleaded them to give up some gummy bears and M&Ms for the house! Can you imagine? *hahah* They had their year's worth of candy intake at one seating. It is after all Christmas! I allowed no limit to their intake for that hour just because (although the daddy kept going Oh No No NO That's too Much!)
We were all ginger-proud of our Gingerbread House and it is such a meaningful family affair. I guarantee fun for the whole family. We might just put this in our Christmas Advent Calendar activity perpetually! The workshop ended with Ewan sieving snow over the house. I could almost hear Jingle Bells ringing in the background as he shook the icing over the roof.
There are four more sessions before this workshop ends. Don't miss it! You can display your Gingerbread House till the end of the year and make it the talking point for your house parties. For enquiries or to make a booking, call +65 6213 4398 or email dining.sls@shangri-la.com.
2015 Christmas Craft Links
Day 4
Christmas Advent Calendar Activity
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A stay at home mum, blogging to widen her social life.
We want to echo the sound of love through our lives to inspire other mothers alike.
We want to echo the sound of love through our lives to inspire other mothers alike.
Oh my! This looks fantastic! I would have gone crazy!
ReplyDeletehahha I went crazy! And the chefs and staff all know that the parents are the ones that are most excited.
DeleteLooks like fun!
ReplyDeleteIt was! I am always the policewoman at home. No Sweets, No Snacks! But I let loose that day because it's a special day! It was the daddy's turn. He kept pushing us to finish and even chipped in so that we can leave that candy buffet. He didn't want his kids to have any more sweets than they already had. hahaha
DeleteJust looking at the display is so tempting! Even adults will like to have their hands on it .
ReplyDeletehah Yea! The daddy said ,"looks like the mom wants to build her own gingerbread house"
DeleteOh my the treats look so delicious and love that the area to make the house is so comfy and kids-friendly! No need to worry about standing on chairs or reaching high tables :)
ReplyDeleteAi @ Sakura Haruka
Yes it's so well-thought. Very comfortable setting indeed.
DeleteWow! Look at that candy buffet! Looks amazing! :) It was nice that the kids were able to do some hands-on activity too! Hmm. Did anyone each the gingerbread house in the end? :)
ReplyDeleteVivien ( Beautiful Chaos )
Yea! We all ate the gingerbread house that very night. We presented it to grandma for her birthday and placed a candle on it too.
DeleteWhat a fun activity for a whole family even though it is supposed to be a kids' workshop!
ReplyDeleteThe kind of workshop that has the best value for money because everyone gets to enjoy it together!
DeleteSuch a fun and engaging activity for the little hands and mouths, haha! I can imagine you chewing on those gummies as you went click-click with the camera away!
ReplyDeleteI SURE DID! I was popping gummy bears and the red ones are my favourite hehehehe
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ReplyDeleteThe no1 concern for my kids when they attend "food" workshop is whether there are enough ingredients left after all the munching haha. The diy Gingerbread house looks gorgeous!
cheers, andy
(SengkangBabies)
That's so funny Andy. Yours are foodies as well? Thank you for the compliment!
DeleteI love this workshop, Ewan must have had lots of fun! :)
ReplyDeleteI really like Dana's! So FILLED with Sweetness and Love!
DeleteSo many candies! And the room is so perfect for snapping pictures!
ReplyDeletehahah I know right =D
Delete