"The Big Red Barn" by Margaret Wise Brown

My fondant farm animals lowed and brayed to me: "Make us a barn!" And they handed me this book (with their little hooves) to use for inspiration:

Hence, I set forth to achieve their field of gingerdreams:

My edible herd finally has a ginger-stead to call its own! Complete with a (melted Jolly Rancher) bucket of water, poured from a green sour string garden hose:

And toasted marshmallow bales of hay, raked with a pretzel pitchfork!


Ground cloves line a dirt path:


Fun Dip Lik-a-Stiks (proving to be a real gingerblogging staple) needed a little support at first to make a nice farmyard fence:

And the barn was raised with good ol' fashioned royal icing-cemented supports...

And some soup cans for good measure...



All pieces were plastered with fondant and scored before construction.

But before that, I held a ginger dress rehearsal with cardboard templates:

This gingerbarn was not without its failed attempts. I had visions of a grand filed of corn, but I couldn't get the stalks to look like, well, corn:

I also wanted to top the barn off with the "golden flying horse" weathervane:

And after much googling, I found this golden horse lollipop!

It proved too heavy, however, to stay atop my structure.

I also awoke one morning and found one my green popcorn trees had completely disappeared.
I think this one looks suspicious if you ask me:

My son, George, suggested we replace it with a green grape:

But it didn't quite provide the symmetry I was looking for.

After reaching a bit of ginger-fatigue, I ended up throwing in the tree towel, and resorting to a couple quick rockpiles instead.

And ta-da, another gingercrib down.