Gingerbread House With Candy Decorations

Varieties
Akin to the original middle eastern recipes, English gingerbread is a dense, treacly (molasses-based) spice cake or bread. Some recipes add mustard, pepper, raisins, nuts, apple, and/or other spices/ingredients to the batter. The usual way of making it is to melt the fat and then mix all the ingredients in a bowl (called "the gingerbread method") rather than using rubbing in or creaming to get the fat absorbed into the flour, and this makes it a particularly easy kind of cake to make. It is usually baked in a loaf or square shape, rather than in the round form common for fruit cakes or sponges. It is traditionally eaten on Bonfire Night. As a dessert, the bread usually omits raisins or nuts and is often served with warm lemon sauce. In the United States, this form of gingerbread is sometimes called "gingerbread cake" to distinguish it from the harder forms; as in England it is typically served in winter, but it is particularly associated with Christmas. French pain d'épices is somewhat similar, though generally slightly drier, and always involves honey rather than treacle (and originally its recipe did not involve ginger).
Parkin is a form of hard gingerbread made with oatmeal and treacle which is popular in the North of England.
In Germany gingerbread is made in two forms: a soft form called Lebkuchen and a harder form, particularly associated with carnivals and street markets such as the Christmas markets that occur in many German towns. The hard gingerbread is made in decorative shapes, which are then further decorated with sweets and icing. The tradition of cutting gingerbread into shapes takes many other forms, and exists in many countries, a well known example being the gingerbread man. Traditionally, these were dunked in port wine.