Disaster and Plan B

I entered a gingerbread house contest, put on by Summerville Dream. A local booster club. Who knew the humidity would wreck havoc on my creation.

It started off well enough, I was even playing with making bolts of fabric and quilts with gingerbread and royal icing.

I had high hopes

Starting to get some decorations on.
It was going to be fantastic!

Then the first problems appeared.  The sugar syrup to hold the house together would not come together properly. It would seize up into some kind of granulated mush, and then become one solid lump in the bottom of the pan.

The candies were starting to slide off, and the gingerbread was no longer nice and crisp.  It was becoming soft enough that my finger prints would leave indentations.

The house was coming apart at the seams.
 and more candies were coming off. The stained glass window started to run,

The colors started to run together. The royal icing should have set in 4 to 6 minutes, after 6 hours it was still not hardened.  It was making me sad and crazy.

At this point, I decided to stop.  No sense in going on, trying to fight the weather.

Time to think up Plan B

A friend of mine mentioned that the creations just had to be edible. They never said it HAD to be gingerbread.   Coco Krispie treats it is! Mold them into something adorable and Christmas like.

A side view.

Full frontal bear.
 I did try to make bows from fondant, and no. they were too soft to look good.

In the window.  The bear is sporting a bow because he started to split at the seams. Stupid humidity.