{I} is in the midst of a Medieval section at school and all the kids had to make a 3-D castle, with 10 labeled parts, and bring it in to school.
{I} convinced me to help him make his out of gingerbread. He did twist my arm...but only a little bit. We worked on a design, I baked the pieces and we constructed it together with tinted meringue powder royal icing.
It was surprisingly easy to construct! I forgot to get the exact outer measurements before I took it into the school, but the gingerbread is about a 1/4" thick, so the basic measurements are 12 1/2" x 12 1/2", with the drawbridge sticking out a little bit more.
We couldn't resist adding some knights and a dragon.
We labeled these 10 parts of a castle:
1. Moat: A ditch around the castle, usually filled with water.
2. Drawbridge: A bridge that could be raised or lowered. It was usually located over a moat.
3. Wall: Strongly built and usually not less than 10 feet thick, the wall surrounded the courtyard of the castle.
4. Portcullis: Main gate of the castle. It was made of heavy wood, reinforced with iron grating and could be raised and lowered.
5. Murder Holes: Holes in the ceiling just after the front gate. The holes were used for dropping large stones on attackers who got through the front gate.
6. Parapets: Low walls around the top edge of a tower or castle wall.
7. Machicolations: The reason why parapets were built. They were holes in the parapets used for dropping all kinds of things, such as boiling oil, hot water, stones, etc.
8. Arrow-loops: Narrow openings in the castle towers through which archers fired their arrows on the enemy below.
9. Outer Bailey: The first courtyard inside the outer walls of the castle.
10. Keep: The strongest and most heavily fortified part of the castle, as it was designed as the last line of defense. The Keep usually housed the owner of the castle, his family, and the Great Hall. The Great Hall was a room at the heart of the castle used for family dinners, banquets, games, dancing, entertainment, and sometimes also contained a courtroom.
If you want to make your own gingerbread castle use 4x the recipe used for my Gingerbread Houses and this Gingerbread Castle Template.
When {I}'s Medieval section is done at school, he is planning on devouring the castle with his friends! Yummy!
Gingerbread House Recipe
Thank you for the great pattern, it was perfect!
ReplyDeleteYour template is goneðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ I really wanted to make it! Any chance you still have it???
ReplyDeleteThe link to the gingerbread castle template is still working. Try using a Chrome browser to view this blog post. I'm so sorry that this reply is so very late! Last April I was graduating with my Masters degree and getting ready to defend my thesis. It was a very, very busy time. If you still want the template, and you can't seem to download it from the blog, I will attach the PDF to an email and send it to you. xoxo Allison
DeleteI'm also looking for this pattern! I can't get the link to work in Chrome. My email is katrina.alison@live.com ... if you don't mind sending it my way as well! :)
DeleteWhat did you make the iron gate out of?
ReplyDeleteI made the gate out of the same royal icing I used to hold the gingerbread pieces together for the castle. I just piped the icing onto a parchment sheet and let it dry completely. It worked great!
DeleteI covered a cookie the shape of the gate opening, with royal icing.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sending the castle template. My son's unit has a castle as the symbol so now I can make one for him. Your work is perfect--I really appreciate your sharing.
ReplyDelete