So this year, I decided I wanted to do a gingerbread house with my almost 7 year old. I think he might be able to appreciate building one this year. Honestly, I don’t really know what I’m doing but I’m willing to risk this being a complete disaster. https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/christmas-gingerbread-house-recipe/ I plan to use this recipe and sub out the butter for shortening. I don’t want to waste kind of expensive vegan butter on something I don’t plan on eating. Instead of using the spices Ann Reardon calls for, I think I’ll just sub a couple of tablespoons of pumpkin spice, which also contains ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Maybe the proportions are a bit different but other than that, I say this sounds easier and I have way too much pumpkin pie spice leftover after Thanksgiving. I also don’t really want to use my semi-pricey King Arthur flour I have for baking breads, which I do like to eat, so I picked up a bag of cheap flour from the Dollar Tree. I also found some cheap cookie gels for writing that are accidentally vegan there. The quality might not be so great, but I want this to last until the holidays are over and I’m sure by then, no one will want to take a bite! However, one ingredient on her list I can’t find here is golden syrup. I think in years past I used corn syrup, which isn’t exactly like golden syrup but it worked. I grabbed a bottle of pancake syrup at Dollar Tree because it’s usually just flavored corn syrup but this one is actually reduced sugar, it didn’t even state that on the front. So now I’m concerned how it will affect the cookie as far as texture goes. So I might combine sugar and the reduced sugar syrup and microwave them. That’s the only concern I have, but we’ll see how it goes. I’ll keep you updated and take some pics along the way.
Oh, and I did a curbside pickup of a few items from Target, such as the cookie cutters and other cookie decor. Where I’m at, the Target and Dollar Tree are in the same shopping center and I didn’t want to go anywhere else so that’s why I didn’t just go to a grocery store. By the way, no, the sprinkles aren’t vegan. I can find organic ones at Kroger (a bit pricey) and I do get those sometimes, but other than that, one can’t just find all these cute sprinkles and shapes that are fully vegan. There might be cute vegan ones online, I don’t know. Most sprinkles contain shellac, which comes from bugs. So yes, this is a future (fingers crossed) vegan-ish gingerbread house!
Looks like fun! I love how prepared you are with all of these colorful candies and all the supplies needed. Glad you were able to find the ingredients for discount prices. Gingerbread houses weren’t part of the tradition in my family growing up. But it really does look like a fun art project. The video you shared is very clever. I loved seeing how the chef / cook was able to make all of those detailed and intricate shapes with fondant or other edible items.
Yes, it’s too bad about the insects being kept captive and ground up to make shellac for candies. Personally, I don’t worry about it much because I don’t see how a tiny percentage of people being very careful about shellac is ever going to help those insects.
When 97% of people in the USA are “all good” with billions of chickens being harmed for chicken meat and/or chicken eggs, every year, just for people in the USA, not talking about all across the Americas or worldwide, I don’t see any of the big players in the candy industry “taking the moral high ground” by making a commitment to stop harming the insects for shellac.
I don’t think eating gobs of candy is a good idea to recommend for anybody, right? It’s something to eat as a treat, in moderation, so making a big point of telling everyone to avoid candies made with shellac seems rather silly, from a practical aspect. Sure, one can CAREFULLY AVOID shellac-containing candies and PAY EXTRA, SHOP AT SPECIAL STORES, etc, for the symbolic aspect, nothing wrong with that.
However, there are some people who get AWFULLY PISSY when I mention that such things are symbolic. I actually think symbolic gestures are very nice, but some people will cry, “Every little bit helps! My careful avoidance of shellac is PRACTICAL action for the animals, not symbolic!” until veins bulge out of their head. LOL. To each their own, ha ha!
From my understanding they aren’t kept captive. I’ve been reading up on it, and from what I gathered, they are parasites that feed off the sap of trees. They excrete a resin on the branches. To collect the shellac, they harvest the branches and scrape it off. In the process, some do get crushed up if they are on the branches, not too different than any harvesting I’m sure. Even if they had farms with trees, I don’t see how that could truly be seen as kept captive.
Interesting! Thanks for the additional info on it.