1 If you have arrived at this album unexpectedly, it describes the making of a Christmas log cabin which you can make and eat. You can decide which parts of it you want to adopt and there will be variations which you will dream up as you work. The album is part of the Ross-on-Wye Scout Group site and Ross is in the English Midlands. The introduction to the album is to be found like this. Type Ross Scout Cabin into Google and click the top site which comes up. See also caption 4.
2 As the sun goes down (or someone dims the lights!) you see that the cabin has a lighting system.
3 And as it gets darker, the light in the sitting room seems brighter. In the daylight, however, , you can see the snowman, a sledge ready to go out to get the Christmas food, and the logs ready to go on the fire inside.
4 Things you need to build the cabin are all listed on the cabin home page. If you have arrived at this album from some other source then do one of two things. Type Ross Scout Cabin into Google and click the top site which comes up. Otherwise, type http://ross-on-wye-scout-groupxmaslogcabin.blogspot.com/ into your browser. Sorry no link in this album - it's only an album. You will see another cake which can be made into a Christmas cake.
5 Let's make a start. If you have a round cake, make it square. Already, the first cuts have been made. No, it's not a teapot! Let an adult do this with a fairly sharp knife. A blunt knife only tears the cake and makes it ragged. If you have a square cake, cut a strip off about 5cms wide. Cut a roof-shaped piece from it. Save all the bits left and don't eat them.
6 Cut the bits you have removed if you had a round cake into triangle-shaped blocks and place them on the top of the square or base.. If it was a square cake, place the roof-piece on the base. It's taking shape already!
7 When you put the roof on, place a square of tinfoil on the top of the base first, otherwise it will stick. Check to see that it stands up without falling over!
8 Cut the top of one of the roof pieces as this is where the chimney will go.
9 The room is next. Remove the roof. Ask the adult to cut two square cuts in one corner, top and side. You can dig out enough cake to make a room.
10 It may be easier to put the cake on another side to get the un-needed cake out.
11 The cake-bits from the first cut of the new cake and the digging out activity - put them on a plate. If you start eating while you are building, you transfer germs from your mouth to your fingers and then onto the cake. Germs love chocolate as much as you!
12 All the bits can go into a plastic tub. You could put a heavy book on the tub. but it's more difficult to drain any liquid if the cake is wet at all. Home-made cakes are sometimes quite moist and this advice is given so that you know what to do.
13 Then put it upside down to drain any liquid coming out of the bits. Shop-bought cakes are too dry for this to be a problem. Leave it overnight.
14 The next day, remove the clamps and turn the now re-shaped bits out to check the piece is firm. Put it back in the tub with the lid on as you'll need it later.
15a Cut a channel in the top of the base, put the sweets into the "room". Put the bulb on top and trail the wire out of the back corner. You will be able to buy a small bulb with its own holder rather than using connectors.
15b This one has no plastic connectors - it's better.
16 Let the wire reach down to the board and then lift it all onto your cake-board or tray with tinfoil on it. The room is at the front.
17 The biscuits need to be laid out and inspected. Remove all broken pieces and put those of different lengths together as they will do for logs and the window frame. Save all the broken bits as we're going to chop them up and make rocks from them.
18 Chocolate time. Break the chocolate into pieces into a plastic bowl. You can use your hands and it's best to wash them before handling items like this each time. You can use cooking chocolate or your favourite chocolate. However, thin pieces like the curves of the sledge are delicate. Galaxy chocolate is unsuitablle.
19 Stand the plastic bowl in hot water and if it floats put a china bowl on top. Hot water can be dangerous so ask the adult to help. A microwave oven can be used on a low setting and the adult wil need to experiment with settings and timing. Everyone must remember that chocolate could explode if too long in the microwave. It could burn you if it gets on your skin while you are working with it. BE CAREFUL! The adult only needs to get it warm.
20 When it looks like this, stir it a few times with a teaspoon. Let the pieces melt to a smooth, custard-like thickness.
21 Start putting the white biscuits on the roof to see how they might go. There should be an overhang of the side biscuits and the top one should stop at the place for the chimney. If you have a big cake, there wil be more biscuits along the top. Take them off and spread warm chocolate all over the roof and the base. Use a small table-knife. If you don't want so much chocolate on the cake, use marzipan or almond paste. Stick the biscuits on with icing. You will need to jump to Picture 41.
22 It's easier to put the roof on an upside-down tub, spread it with chocolate and add the white biscuits while it's warm. If the chocolate hardens, use melted chocolate as glue (or icing). You will get chocolate over your fingers so wipe them on a damp cloth - if you lick you'll be sick and so may your family days later when they eat the cake. Germs are in the news and they can be dangerous so don't take risks.
23 Using melted chocolate as glue, stick biscuits all round the base and cut some to make a window frame.
24 The window frame bits - the space needs to be measured first and the bits might not be halves exactly. When the roof goes back on for the last time, don't forget the piece of tinfoil. You may need to change the bulb and the tinfoil stops the roof sticking to the base.
25 Put the roof on. Let's now think about the chimney and the porch. We'll need melted chocolate which we can put in place easily and in small amounts. To do that we need an icing bag.
26 Here's a tricky bit - making an icing bag. These measurements need not be exact. Cut a piece of grease-proof paper 20 cms by 15 cms using scissors. Fold it across opposite corners and cut in half. You now have two triangles with base of 26 cms and sides 20 cms and 15 cms. Hold one triangle in your left hand with the point on your right. The 15 cms side should be at the top. With your right hand hold the top point and twist it into a cone. Adjust the cone to give no hole at the narrow end. Fold the top of the cone down and you now have an icing bag. Now you wish you had bought some ready-made bags! Make or buy about a dozen.
27 The chimney is made from a piece of macaroni and cotton-wool. Open the tub of trimmings and ask the adult to cut corners off to result in a "hill". Use a trimming for the base of the chimney. Make it like a block the shape of where it is to go on the roof. Stick the chimney piece into the base and stick it in place with melted chociolate. Using the icing bag, put the point into a cup, lift a small amount of chocolate with a small tea-knife and put it in the bag. Fold over the end. Cut the point off with scissors to give a hole about the thickness of a match-stick. Squeeze chocolate where you want it.
28 Here's the robin on the chimney. We'll talk about the white icing later.
29 The bits are for the porch. Measure the height of the door under the white biscuits or roof-logs. Draw the outlines on paper and place this paper under grease-proof paper. Squeeze or pipe chocolate into the outlines and leave in the cold to set. Make some spares.
30 Another way of doing it is to place a blob of chocolate onto grease-proof paper and spread it flat ......
31 ...... like this. Then you use a small vegetable knife and carefully cut out the bits you need. If you are not sure, ask the adult to do it. Make some spares.
32 Here's a wood-store on the side of the cabin. You can also see the wires from the cabin to the hill.
33 It's easy to make another "porch" but much lower. Cut small bits of biscuit and place them in the store. They will look like logs.
34 And now for the sledge. Draw the sides on paper and put the paper under the grease-proof paper. Pipe the chocolate as you did for the porch. Don't forget the flat piece where the parcels go on the sledge. It's a square the same length as the middle of the sledge. Move the drawings around and pipe several of each piece as they break easily when you handle them.
35 Here's a side that's a bit more ambitious. Make some spares.
36 When set, place the grease-proof paper on the edge of a table and pull the paper down. As the bits come over the edge let them go onto your fingers. Put them on a plate so that they don't get broken.
37 You can also pipe Xmas tree bits. Make some spares.
38 Put three bits together and stick them with chocolate in a piping bag.
39 Another tricky bit. Letters. Write the words on paper first and then put the paper under grease-proof paper. It will take a while as you practise. Pipe a circle to use as the base of the snowman's hat. Make some spares. If you find it impossible to pipe letters, you can buy "Merry Christmas" pieces already made. Later, when the circle has set, stick a smallpiece of biscuit on with chocolate - there's the snowman's hat.
40 Experiment using icing as well. You can see a white sledge as well as a small hut but that's a bit ambitious. Leave it all to set. If you have used icing it needs hours to dry. Stick the letters in place on the side of the hill with a bag of icing.
41 This is the hill you can make from the cake-bits in the tub. It's already been cut. Use two spare pieces of cake (or take them from the underside of the "hill". to go next to the battery - look at the next picture and then come back to this one. Put the hill on top of the battery. Spread it with warm chocolate and leave it to set. Make some icing. Separate two eggs into yolk and white. Use the whites and icing sugar and mix with a teaspoon until it's a paste. Spread it all over the hil. Stick the sides of the sledge into the icing and leave over night. The next day put the square of chocolate on with icing as glue.
42 Heres the battery to go under the hill with the contact strips at the back.
43 One wire is connected to the contact strip, the other is loose until you want the light on in the room. Have one last look before going to bed to make sure the light is off.
44 Snowman is looking so make sure it is right! Don't ask him to wave his magic wand if it isn't. If the clamps are too close the light might come on in the night. Snowman is asking "Why has nobody described how I am made?". If you used marzipan or almond paste ealier, you shape him out of that. Otherwise, left-over icing is made very thick by adding more icing sugar. Pipe his face in chocolate and do make him smile!
45 Here's a close up. There's a few rocks to keep the clamps company. The caption for Picture 49 tells you how to make them.
46 Now that the hill is finished, carefully place the letters on the side of the hill. Stick them with the icing bag. When you gain confidence and skills, try piping them straight on! Practise on the side of a cake tin or saucepan.
47 Have you noticed the fence? Pipe "railway-lines" using chocolate. Make some spares. Allow to set and remove them as you did with the sides of the sledge. Pipe some soft icing where you want them and caefully stick them in.
48 Icicles from the roof are done with icing and a bag. Pipe snow onto the sides and roof, The shiny stuff in the picture is a small piece of leaf gelatine. Don't use it as it tends to melt away due to the moisture in the cake.
49 Spare biscuits are used as logs. Before that happens, make rocks from all the broken biscuits. Put them in a bowl with some chocolate or icing, mix together and spoon them out. They won't take long before you can pick them up and put them where you want them. Spread icing on top to look like snow. When the whole scene is finished, dredge the roof and everywhere with icing sugar in a small sieve. Pipe icing on as snow and then dredge with icing sugar. put icing sugar into a small sieve and tap it over the logs, the rocks, the snowman, the roof, the hill and sledge. Do try to avoid the floor!
50 You can make a notice board and it could made made using white chocolate. Pipe the letters in dark chocolate. The other way round is easier so use dark chocolate for the "board" and pipe the letters in white icing. You can experiment with colouring in the icing. The "pole" can be a bread-stick or a chocolate finger biscuit. What about putting your house-name on the board? Or - "SANTA - HERE WE ARE!".
51 If there are trimmings left over, make them into table decorations. Here's a log of cake-trimmings coverd with warm chocolate.
52 And so to bed! Your cabin may look quiite different from this one, but it doesn't matter. If you would like to enter your cabin into a competition, send an email to avrf23@dsl.pipex.com Just paste the address into your email box. Tell us if you have any questions, comments or even advice to help others make a cabin or cake.
