Just For Fun (JFF), let’s talk about the Starbucks Gingerbread house we made earlier this week.

One of my absolute favourite things to do during the Holiday season is to build a gingerbread house. I absolutely adore it. And since, I’m pretty much boycotting Chrimstas by not putting up decor, I figured this would be a simple, and fun way to bring some festivity to our lack lustre home.

Over the years, we’ve experimented with traditional and non traditional Gingerbread Houses. We’ve done the house. We’ve done the village. We’ve done the train (a personal favourite if I recall). And this year, my husband suggested the Starbucks Gingerbread Cafe. Since, I have a few suggestions and recommendations, I thought I’d chronicle them here for you.

 

I should be honest, he apparently suggested ‘jokingly.’ I thought he was totally being serious, so when I brought it home, I thought he’d be stoked. But he laughed at me and said “I wasn’t being serious, why’d you buy that.” Apparently we need to work on our communication skills.

Starbucks

This was an absolute perfect fit for us. My husband and I, had our first date at Starbucks. We are avid Starbucks drinkers. And I’ve been a gold card member so long my gold card is beginning to show some serious wear and tear (are you able to get replacement cards? anyone know?). Heck, we even stopped at Starbucks on our wedding day (between standing in the cold rain for photos and our lunch time reception).

Starbucks Gingerbread House Kit Essentials

Alright, so like any Gingerbread house, the Starbucks Gingerbread House Cafe Kit comes with the basic essentials: a base for the house, the gingerbread house, icing, candy, and instructions. It ALSO comes with a super cool logo, and some weird paper pieces to be used as awnings (fancy). Oh, and a piping bag to put your icing in!

I personally believe that no gingerbread kit will adequately provide enough candy – or the right candy. Naturally, I picked up a few more bags of candy to help decorate our house and bring it to the next level.

Seriously Crushing <3

• Starbucks Red Cups: these are FREAKING ADORABLE. Like seriously, we couldn’t get over how precious they were. Starbucks provided you with more than enough to decorate the house, and they were incredibly tasty (I might have eaten them all). #brandonpoint
• Logos: I loved the logo’s provided. They were a little hard to put on, and don’t touch them once applied (I smudged the main logo). Seriously crushing on this adorable touch.
  

  oops.

• Size: The size of the house is just right. But see the point below about the lack of a roof for candy space.
• Provided Candy: Realistically, the amount of candy provided is adequate for the size of this house (and the lack of a roof), but as always, buy more to make the scene complete.
• Instructions were to the point and easy to understand.
• Assembly is straightforward and easy when building the Starbucks Gingerbread house.
• Gingerbread Taste Test: I would actually eat the Starbucks gingerbread house. As you might have noticed, we don’t have any planter boxes outside of our Cafe (there were supposed to be 2 I think, but we only had 1). There’s only one because we ate it. It was good.

Seriously Disappointing </3

• Icing: Personally, I thought Starbucks is being stingy on the icing. I was overly anxious there wasn’t going to be enough, and there was just enough. (I don’t think my husbands enthusiasm for tasting it helped with the situation).
• Red Jelly Candies & Candy Canes: these are disgusting. don’t eat them. I warned you.
• Lack of a Roof: there is NO GINGERBREAD ROOF FOR THE GINGERBREAD CAFE! This is my serious disappointment. Why? THE ROOF IS WHERE ALL THE CANDY GOES! DUH. They do provide you with a green piece of cardboard to be used as a roof, but we all know that hold the weight of a thousand gum balls. I really wish it had a roof.
• Lack of Details: if you look at the package you see an absolutely gorgeous cafe… I was surprised, upon closer inspection of my gingerbread, that there were no suggested grid lines for the exterior features of the building. That’s 100% your imagination. To me this was disappointing because my creativity is like zilch, but perhaps this open canvas gives you unlimited opportunity.
• Price Point: Ouch. I can’t recall the specifics, but I had to reload my gold card  – $29.95 CDN online (I don’t think they charged me THAT much… I paid $26.53 in store — which included the tasty sugar cookie I devoured)

Recommendations

If you are an admirer of all things Starbucks, I would most definitely recommend the Starbucks Gingerbread House Cafe Kit. However, if you don’t really care, just go to the grocery store and pick up the one on sale for under $15.

So there you have it. That’s my just for fun review of this years gingerbread house. Did you build a gingerbread house? Care to share?