Katie Morag's Gingerbread House (with a dash of Robert Burns!)

You may not know Katie Morag, she is a fiesty little girl who lives on The Island of Struay, off the west coast of Scotland.  She is the heroine of a series of picture books and a wonderfully inspiring character, you can find out more about her from the books publishers here.

One of the things children study in Geography in Year 2 (English National Curriculum) is life in a different part of the country.  My daughter's teacher is using the Katie Morag stories to help the girls in her class learn about the contrast between life as a small girl on a little island and  life as a small girl in a large city.  My daughter has loved these stories for a long time, and is delighted to be working on them at school, so she was thrilled to make a wee scottish house to take into school and share with her friends.

I used the Lakeland kit to make the gingerbread house and put it together with royal icing.

Then my daughter decorated.  She decided that rather then using sweets to make windows, we would add some tartan curtains.  We cut these out from ribbon and used some of the icing as glue to stick the curtains onto the inside of the window frames.

We used some oat cereal for the thatch on the roof.  My daughter also wanted to incorporate some colours which are found in tartan, so she added some bright sweets in rows.  We completed the roof with some white mice.

The mice were  a nod to Robert Burns, my favourite poem when I was a little girl being:

 To A Mouse

Wee sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie

O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi bickering brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an chase thee,

Wi murdering pattle!

I had managed to buy a (toy)  Highland cow and calf, as well as a sheep, so we have put them grazing on the grass, and some Scottie dog shortbread biscuits adorn the side of the house.  Katie and her brother Liam are represented by the two little gingerbread figures.  The path is more oat cereal  with carrots, which reflect gardening on island crofts .

The roses above the door, once more reference Burns.

A Red, Red Rose

O my Luve's  like a red, red rose

That's newly sprung in June;

O my Luve's like the melodie

That's sweetly play'd in tune.

Katie Morag's Island House

As always we assemble kit before we commence work

I've always loved Highland Cattle,
no trip to Scotland is complete without seeing these
gentle beauties

Oat cereal and tartan ribbons

Scottie dogs and Gingerbread people

The colours of tartan

Making tartan curtains

Covering all the windows

An oat and carrot path

Bright colours

And mice!

Detail on the roof

The scottie dogs

Well, um, the sheep is larger then the children!

Highland Cattle

Happy Burns Night
(Friday 25th January 2013)

The Roses bring me neatly to St Valentine's Day and my next Gingerbread House.

In a day or two I will be announcing the next Seasonal Gingerbread Challenge, and we'll be looking for  Valentine Themed Houses.  Do look out for my next post, and I hope you are already making plans.