Giant Gingerbread Boy: the archived recipe

Condensed from the original account by Cathy Rutherford, published 2008-06-03. The quantities and method are the contributor’s; this is not a new kitchen test.

Ingredients recorded

390g plain flour

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

115g butter

150g light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 large egg

110g treacle

Royal icing to assemble: 500g icing sugar and 2 egg whites

To dress: 4 boxes of roll-out icing and black, red, green and blue food colouring

The base quantities are the 12-man recipe given in the account; the class used 8 times each of them. The finished boy measured 110cm against a normal gingerbread boy of 15cm and the pupil, Harry, at 105cm. The ingredients cost £17.45 and the boy raised £20 for Comic Relief.

Method recorded

The quantities above are for 12 gingerbread men; the class multiplied all of them by 8 for a boy the size of a real 5-year-old.

Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

In another bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar and vanilla essence and whisk with an electric mixer until creamy.

Add the egg and treacle to the creamed mixture and mix until blended.

Mix the two sets of ingredients together until you have a ball of dough.

Make pattern pieces: the class drew round a pupil and cut the paper pattern into 10 pieces so each would fit into the oven.

Roll out the dough into the pieces and cook each one at 180oC for 10-15 minutes. When cool, stick each piece onto a large piece of card with a little royal icing.

Colour the roll-out icing with small amounts of food colouring, adding icing sugar if it turns sticky, roll it out, cut the clothes to shape and stick them on with royal icing.

The original account

Giant gingerbread boy – by Class 3, Lower Heath CE Primary School, Shropshire

Our class of Year 5 & 6 children were trying to think of something different to do for Comic Relief, when our teacher showed us your site. We looked at a couple of other gingerbread men on the site but wondered whether we could make one even bigger…

So, we thought, ‘Why not make a gingerbread boy the same size as a real boy?’ We looked around for a boy around the right size, and chose Harry (he’s 5, and 105cm).

Operation Gingerbread Boy was born…

We needed quite a lot of ingredients. We found this recipe for 12 gingerbread men, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near enough! So we multiplied all of these quantities by 8!

390g flour plain flour
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
115g butter
150g light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 large egg
110g treacle

Bags of plain flour, butter, brown sugar, salt, syrup and spices stacked on a classroom table

Also, to stick parts of the boy together, we used these things to make royal icing:
500g icing sugar
2 egg whites

We also wanted to dress our boy in his school uniform, so we used:
4 boxes of roll out icing
Food colouring – black, red, green and blue

Four boxes of ready-to-roll white icing, icing sugar and food colouring on a blue school table

So, if you fancy making a life sized gingerbread boy, here’s how…

First, get a class of children ready with bowls, aprons, scales etc. (we used 24 children working in groups of 3, but any number will do!) Get them to mix their dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

A child spooning ground ginger into a large bowl of flour on a covered classroom table

In another bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar and vanilla essence. Whisk with an electric mixer until creamy.

An electric hand mixer beating the butter and sugar mixture in a big metal bowl

Add the egg and treacle to the bowl with the sticky mixture in it. Continue to mix until blended.

Pouring dark syrup from a green jug into the bowl while the mixer runs

Mix the two sets of ingredients together until you have a ball of dough.

Tipping a bowl of flour into the dark treacle mixture in the metal bowl

Rolling out slabs of dark gingerbread dough on a floured blue table top

Now comes the bit where you need to make your pattern pieces. We drew around Harry and then cut the paper pattern into 10 pieces so that each piece would fit into the oven.

A life-size paper template of a boy, cut into sections, laid out on the hall floor

Roll out the dough into the correct sized and shape pieces and cook each one at 180oC for 10-15 minutes. When they are cool, stick each one onto a large piece of card with a little royal icing so that they stay in place.

Baked gingerbread pieces arranged into a life-size body on a table, bowl of icing alongside

Next is to give your boy some clothes. We dressed ours in our school uniform. First you need to colour your icing by mixing a small amount of food colouring with the blocks of roll out icing. Be careful not to mix too much colouring in, as this makes the icing go really sticky; add some icing sugar if this happens. Also, be careful not to spill the food colouring – it makes a real mess if you do. Believe us, we know! Our final work of warning is that the food colouring may not come off for a few days, so you may get some funny looks from other people when they see your green hands!

When you’ve coloured the icing, roll it out

A child rolling out a large circle of bright green icing on a classroom table

and cut to shape. Use some royal icing to stick the clothes to the boy.

Our teacher, Mrs. Rutherford, used royal icing to ice the school’s logo onto his jumper.

Close-up of the green icing jumper with the school crest piped onto the chest

Finally, as our boy was for red nose day, we gave him a big red nose.

A child's red-stained hands cupping a small ball of bright red icing

And here are the finished boys:

The finished gingerbread boy on its painted backdrop beside a real child lying down for scale

The one on the left is made of Gingerbread and the one on the right is Harry!

Comparisons:
Normal gingerbread boy – 15cm
Harry – 105cm
Giant gingerbread boy – 110cm

Cost of small gingerbread boy – 30p
Cost of giant gingerbread boy – The ingredients cost £17.45, but our teacher paid for them. When he was finished, we cut him up and sold him to raise money for Comic Relief. We raised £20, and he was yummy!

We think we did a fantastic job, and we hope you agree. We hope you have enjoyed reading this, and we’re already thinking about what we can do next.

Please rate our boy – we are hoping for a really great score! Thanks.

Giant Gingerbread Boy

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