After twelve hours, five emergency trips to the grocery store, three batches of royal frosting [1], and two house threatening crises, my log gingerbread snow cabin with frozen lake was completed and ready to enter the challenge [2]. Let's hope it wins the the SugarHQ best gingerbread house contest [3]!

It was a tough, time consuming project, but the final result — an amazingly cute gingerbread house — was well worth the effort. I couldn't have done it without the expertise of an incredibly creative friend [4], the support of very loving parents, and the candy from a recently opened old-school candy shop [5]. To check out a gallery of images of The Lagito Cabin and learn more about the house making process — along with my tips for future builders —

• Use a recipe that produces a large quantity of dough. I used Martha Stewart's dark molasses gingerbread cookie recipe [6]. I made the dough the night before, allowing enough time to chill.
• From start to finish it takes a lot of time to make a stylish yet classic gingerbread house so if you are entering our challenge keep this in mind.




• Stock up on supplies before you begin to make the house. Parchment paper and powdered sugar are a few of the items that had to be picked up at the grocery store in the middle of the project.



• Problem solve! My dog Lacey [7] ate a chunk of the roof so we had to patch up the hole with a chocolate graham cracker and frosting.
• Get creative. My design consultant made a separate trip to the candy store for inspiration. It was easy to shop for the candy once we knew what we were doing.
• Go to a candy store where you can purchase candy in bulk. We needed only one Nerd for the doorknob. Instead of buying an entire box of Nerds we bought one.
• Have fun! It was an all day event so we made sure to have delicious Irish blue cheese and crackers, crab salad on crostini, and gambas al ajillo for snacking. We also had cocktails, red wine, and tons of Christmas music to get us in the mood.