gingerblog: progression and concession

in preperation for a complete gingerbread house, i whipped up a couple batches of cookies to test the colors. i need two different colors of gbread to get the look i want; pilgrim baptist was an off-white stone on two sides and red brick on the other two. i'm having trouble getting my hands on red liquid food coloring for the brick. everyone and their mother's baking sweets right now; joann's was almost out of decorating tips, some of them even stolen out of their cardboard packaging. shameful. while i was out, i reluctantly-not-really picked up a little something to help me in my task:

i've always wanted one of these, and what better reason to get one than a gbread house? considering i'm going to go thru flour and powdered sugar like mad, plus the icing i'm making needs to be whipped for like 10 minutes, i couldn't take the thought of wasting my time with the hand mixer. haven't cracked it open yet. i'm under the spell of what might happen if i do.. i may never stop baking.