Baking Day

It was Gingerbread madness in the house yesterday.

Stuart and Shane arrived within minutes of each other to an expectant and excited group of pets, and almost immediately they all went into town to buy ingredients and cutters to make Gingerbread men, women, stars and angels.

It seemed at first that the day was destined for disaster, there were no cutters to be found in Whitards, Dyers or Boswells. Thankfully Debenhams had stocked up!

They walked back to Sainsburys to buy all their cookie ingredients to find, alas! No Ginger!

Shane set off with a determined stride to Holland and Barratt, where he was forced to buy a bag of ginger the size of Belgium, so not to dissapoint the pets.

Ingredients purchased they got back home and whipped up some dough, which didn't go to plan, first of all it was so dry it was, in fact, more a crumble than a dough, but by adding more melted butter they eventually made large ball of dough and put it into the fridge to firm up.

While it was firming up Stuart, Shane and Truly Scrumptious Lulu smoked cigars and had a small sweet sherry whilst watching Extreme makeover. Fat Boy Faggot, Giggsey Girl the stupid slug face and Trotter busied them selves in the kitchen, making sure the oven was on and wiping down the tops. Fing sat on the kitchen top and fiddled with the tubes of coloured icing and wondered how he would decorate his cookies.

Eventually Shane announced that the dough was ready and every one gathered to watch. Stuart rolled the dough while Shane gave instructions, then one by one, with cutters in their tiny paws, the pets came forward to cut out their cookies.

Trotter came first. Unfortunately for Trotter the pastry had been cut too thin and when he tried to take the cookie from the kitchen top to the tray, the head fell of and landed on Tutz head, where it stayed for the rest of the day, like a gingerbread Tam O'Shanter.

There were various accidents until the tray was full with all the pets cookies. Giggsey Girls Gingerbread woman had a lopsy arm, Lulu's Gingerbread man had a strangely contorted head.

Fing made a series of stars in which he cut smaller stars and filled them with crushed boiled sweets to make opaque windows.

I dont know if it was the sherry but rather tragically while everyone was chatting away and laughing the first tray of cookies were absolutely incinerated and came out black as night from the oven, the kitchen filled with an acrid smoke. Trotter stared in horrified disbelief at the charred remains of his headless gingerbread man, quietly smoking on the tray.

But we learned from this mistake and the next 3 trays of Gingerbread came out perfect.

The pets then got the tubes of icing and spent ages decorating their cookies, dipping them in chocolate, drizzling white icing across, drawing faces with the ready made icing in tubes.