How to Make a Gingerbread Ranch, Part 2

You can make Part 2 of your gingerbread ranch on a second day (it is a big project, after all!) or you can synch up your construction techniques and make the whole ranch at once.

Things You'll Need

• Candies
• Frostings
• Gingerbread Dough
• Red Sugar
• Kitchen Utility Knives
• Pastry Bags
• Scissors
• Rulers

Instructions

Building Your Barn and Corral

1. Spread mortar thickly along the edges of the barn walls that will form the barn corners.

2. Stand them up and join them together to make a box with an open top.

3. Spread mortar thickly along the top edge of the long walls and up the sides and along the top of the taller narrow walls. Lay two roof pieces across the parallelogram edges (the top - the triangle part - will still be open) and prop securely. Spread mortar along the top edge of these lower roof pieces and along one long edge of one of the remaining roof pieces. Lay the remaining two roof pieces across the triangle, pushing them together so that they meet solidly at the roofline.

4. Prop them with something solid (such as cookbooks) to hold them so that they don't slide down the roof as they dry (it should be reasonably solid in about an hour).

5. Lay out four fence posts. Glue two railing pieces to each fence post with mortar (at 90-degree angles) 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 inches from the bottom of the post. Lay out the remaining four fence posts. Glue two railing pieces to each with mortar (at 90-degree angles) 1 3/4 and 2 3/4 inches from the bottom of the post. Allow to dry.

6. Build the corral by alternating sections with high and low rails, securing the posts to your surface and the railings to the posts with mortar. Prop up the fence until it dries.

7. Decorate the barn with candy and fill it with hay; fill the corral with gingerbread or plastic horses.

Making a Pattern for the Barn

1. Make a pattern for the wide walls: Draw and cut out a rectangle 10 inches long by 5 inches high. Measure and cut a barn door: From either side measure in 3 and 7 inches; measure 3 inches in from the bottom.

2. Make a pattern for the narrow walls: Draw a rectangle 6 inches wide by 8 inches high; measure 5 inches up from one of the short sides and draw a horizontal line across the rectangle. At the center (the 3-inch mark) of the short side closest to the line you've just drawn, measure up 1 inch and mark; draw lines from this point to the top corners of the rectangle to make the top angles of the roofline. (Stand the pattern piece up: You should see a rectangle with a line across it a little more than halfway up, topped with a broad, almost flat triangle.)

3. Add the other two angles that will help you make the roofline for a characteristic four-sided barn roof: From the point where the triangle meets the rectangle, measure 3/4 inch back up the triangle and mark a point. Draw a slanted line from this point to the point on the tall side where the two rectangles meet at the 5-inch line. Do the same on the other side.

4. Measure and mark 2 inches in from the long sides and 6 and 8 inches in from the bottom to create 2-inch-square high windows (hayloft windows). Measure and mark a barn door (a rectangle 1 1/2 inches in from each side and 3 inches high).

5. Make a pattern for the barn roof: Draw and cut out a rectangle 3 1/2 by 10 inches.

Cutting Out Your Barn

1. Roll out gingerbread dough to a thickness of 1/2 inch.

2. Use the other pattern pieces to cut out the barn: four walls (two long, two tall and narrow) and four roof pieces.

3. Cut out the windows, then cut a door in one of the long and one of the narrow barn walls. Trim 1/8 inch off the door pieces all the way around.

4. Cut 14 strips, 4 inches by 1/4 inch, for 14 fence rails; and 8 strips, 3 inches by 1/2 inch, for fence posts.

5. Bake as directed in "How to Make Gingerbread for a Gingerbread House."

Tips & Warnings

• The barn's narrow walls will be almost twice as tall as its long walls - this is to accommodate the barn roof, which has four pieces, the lower two of which act as both roof and side panels to give it that typical barn shape.

• There are a few more pieces you'll need - rails for the corral fence and steps and rails for the porch - but you can cut them freehand when you cut out the gingerbread; they're simple and small.

• Cut out the big pieces first and fit the others in as you can.

• Sprinkle the barn wall pieces (not the roof) with red sugar before you bake.