- Three, two, one!
Christmas!
Welcome to Night In Night Out,
a show where we compare a home-cooked, tasty recipe
to a night out at a fancy restaurant.
Today we're going not one but two dates,
and then at the end we're each going to pick
which one was the better date.
- Today's episode is gingerbread.
- It's the holiday special,
and for this special episode,
we partnered with the Google Home Hub,
and they're gonna help us make
a delicious gingerbread house.
- Mmm.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- Presents.
It's Christmas!
Ahh!
Okay, let's see if we can find a good gingerbread recipe.
- Mmm.
Hey Google.
Cook with Tasty.
- [Robotic Voice] Alright, getting Tasty.
Welcome back to Tasty.
What would you like to make today?
- Gingerbread.
- [Robotic Voice] Sure, gingerbread recipes.
- Ooh, this one looks good.
Gingerbread cookies.
We can make a house out of that.
- [Robotic Voice] Sure, here you go.
Does this look good?
- Yes. - Yup.
- [Robotic Voice] Great.
Let's get started.
- [Ariel] This is awesome.
- [Ned] Yeah, this is great.
- [Robotic Voice] In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter,
brown sugar, molasses, salt, cinnamon, ginger,
and allspice until smooth.
- Ingredient? - Ginger.
- All the spices.
- I don't know why we need other spices.
We just put in allspice.
- [Ariel] Yeah, you know, we can just bake with it.
- [Ned] Isn't it two teaspoons and a tablespoon?
- I have no idea, actually.
- Hey Google, how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon?
- [Robotic Voice] One US tablespoon
equals three US teaspoons.
- Three teaspoons, okay.
- [Ariel] Alright, I'm ready for an egg.
- [Ned] So smooth.
Boop.
Mmm. Oh, it's good.
- [Ariel] Oh, don't eat it; it has raw egg in it.
- Oh, yeah.
It's only got a little bit of raw egg.
- Yeah.
We only need a little bit to get sick.
- What?
Not only baking powder but baking soda.
- All the bakings.
- All the baking stuff.
I always get confused.
Oh my goodness.
Oh, that's making me hungry.
- [Ariel] That's really good.
- [Ned] Alright, now it's time to wrap it and chill it.
Snug like a baby.
- Snug as a bug in a rug.
- Well, now our dough is chilling,
and it's time for you and me to chill as well.
(slurping beverages)
Ahh.
- Alright, you ready to roll out this dough?
- Yeah.
Right now it just looks like a giant tootsie roll.
Nice job.
- Thank you.
- Wow, it's so hard.
- You need to tag out?
Oh, crap.
- What happened?
- I don't know.
It caught my knuckle.
Oh my God, just eyeballing it.
- Maybe I'm just a better drawer than you are.
- Yeah.
Just throwing caution to the wind.
Dang, we did not put enough flour down.
- It looks like a little hobbit house.
- It's vintage.
Alright, let's get this guy in the oven.
Let's make the other parts of our house.
- Okay.
And that.
Haha!
- It's like a pretty natural 45.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, and for this top.
- [Ariel] That's genius.
- Haha!
Oh yeah, you've got some flour on your face.
(blowing)
(blowing raspberry)
Oh, gross.
That's a wet one.
Wait, so what should we do with this little door piece?
- How about a little gingerbread man?
- A little gingerbread man.
Let's put Norman Pierre in the oven.
- Trees?
- Trees!
- [Ariel] I like just free handing it.
This is fun.
- [Ned] Yeah.
What else can we make?
- [Ariel] Candy cane garden?
- Maybe like a nice drainage system.
- [Ariel] We might have to sketch that out.
A dog.
- A dog, yeah.
Let me take in your face.
Let me take in your essence.
I've got it, okay, good.
- [Ariel] I've got it.
- Oh, Bean, you're beautiful.
It's really just a dog head.
Oh, let's check it out, Ariel.
- [Ariel] Ah, that looks so good!
- Look at that!
Bonjour, Norman Pierre.
- It's a girl.
- Right.
- Norman.
I think your snowman is missing a head.
- No!
That's the head.
- No.
Snowmen usually have three.
- I can't wait until Wes is old enough to do this.
- Oh, we have to make a little baby.
It's like an actual baby where, even if it's ugly,
you're like, oh, but he's adorable.
Let's get started on the frosting.
Do we want more of a pink,
or do we want more of a deep maroon?
- I'd like red, please.
- Okay.
He's got kind of a cool, casual smile.
Ready to build this house?
- You know I am.
- Let's raise the walls.
- I'm so happy with that.
- And the garage.
I think we made our roof too big.
- [Ariel] Looks kinda like a birdhouse.
- It's our ginger birdhouse.
- It's a ginger bird!
- It's ginger bird.
We're going to have a little
husband vs. wife decorating competition.
I will take this side.
- And I get this side.
Hey Google, set a timer for 10 minutes.
- [Robotic Voice] Okay, 10 minutes, starting now.
(festive instrumental music)
- [Ned] How's it going over there, Ariel?
- Oh no.
I can't.
- Oh no!
I'm losing shingles!
- [Ariel] They're all just falling off!
- My shingles!
It's done.
No, wait, you can't touch it.
No, you can't touch it.
No, that's cheating.
- This is a Spanish style tile roof
with exposed gingerbread walls.
- Very good use of the licorice
to cover up a large space at once.
And it also offers a lot of architectural pizazz.
- Yeah, right, like a window into the soul
of the ginger birdhouse.
- Yeah, I think you did great.
- Okay, well, let's move on to your side.
I love the gumdrops
and the candy sides. - Thank you.
- This window is lovely.
- Thank you.
- Literally wish I had--
- Thought of that?
- Thought of just done anything.
What's going on with this archway door?
- Those are actually bushes.
- Oh, those are bushes.
Okay, okay.
Alright.
Let's eat it!
Now it's finally time to taste our creation.
Our beautiful ginger birdhouse.
- [Ariel] What part are we gonna eat?
- Let's taste the snowman.
Decapitate him.
- Oh, you took the whole head off?
- I did, yeah.
- Okay.
I'm gonna take the top of the tree off.
- You ready to eat this?
- Yes.
- Clink.
Mmm. - Mmm.
- The frosting on top is super sweet.
And then the inside is a little spicy.
- It's soft in the middle.
- Yeah.
- I like that.
- Yeah, me too.
We put so much work into building the house.
Now I see why people just let it sit.
- [Ariel] I know, I don't wanna eat it.
- [Ned] For a while.
- No, Norman Pierre is so cute.
- No.
I feel like we have to try at least
a little bit of the house.
Turns out all of those red things are gum.
- Ew.
- Oh no.
Here you go.
- Thank you.
- There's your piece of the front door.
- Delicious.
- Oh, it's good.
- That's the best piece, right?
- That's the best piece.
It's the allspice.
Well, we destroyed the entire side of our house.
It's okay because we are headed to
a night out at a fancy bakery.
But first we gotta get changed.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Oh, you look great!
- Oh, thank you.
You look very nice.
- Understated.
Elegant. - Yeah, this is so subtle.
- Thank you, thank you.
We're on our way to the night out.
We're going to Half Baked Co.
We're finally gonna see the $1,000 gingerbread house.
- We don't get to eat it?
- Oh, yeah, we're gonna get to eat it.
Oh ho ho ho, we're gonna get to eat it.
- Okay.
- They have actually been working for two days straight.
I mean, I bet they can do things
with icing that we only dream of.
Hey, how's it going?
Very nice to meet you. - Hi, welcome to Half Baked.
- Thank you.
I'm Ariel.
- I'm Natalie. - I'm Ned.
- It's so good to meet you. - Nice to meet you guys.
Welcome in.
- So what sort of cakes do you specialize in?
- Custom cakes.
So that means first birthday parties.
Those are huge.
Weddings, corporate events.
We do a lot of stuff for the studios around Burbank.
Pretty much anything.
- So are we gonna get to go in the back?
- Yeah.
Let's go meet the Head Decorator.
- Okay. - Okay.
- I'm the Head Cake Artist here at Half Baked Co.
Pretty much whatever you can think of,
we can create it for you.
- Awesome. - Yeah.
- So what are some things that a professional baker can do
that a home chef might not think of?
- One of the things that a lot
of people don't use is white chocolate.
So you pretty much just dip it.
- What?
That's so easy.
- And then just start gluing your pieces together.
- [Ned] Huh.
- And it goes a little bit faster than using royal icing.
Chocolate dries very quickly.
On the inside I always like to use Rice Krispies Treats.
Another one of our secrets to keep stuff sturdy.
So to make your Christmas trees,
you just mold it into the shape of your tree.
You grab your green royal icing,
and then just start spreading it.
And just work your way all the way around.
To make it rough you can even go like this.
Some more dimension.
To make our reef, we grab fondant.
It's made with marshmallows, powdered sugar and corn syrup.
Kind of shape it into a donut.
And to give it more texture, I use a star tip.
And this makes them feel like pine needles.
Give it that realistic feel.
Use your edible gold,
which we mix with a little bit of vodka.
If you use water it doesn't mix as well.
And just go ahead and paint it.
- That's how you jack up the price.
- Yeah, exactly.
- That's how they always get you, with the edible gold.
- Evaporates?
- It evaporates, yes.
So it's safe for kids.
- Kids also, yeah.
- Safe for kids.
- We're new parents.
It's time to bring out the night out gingerbread house.
We should probably close our eyes.
- Okay.
- Three, two, one!
- Ooh.
- Ooh, wow.
- Oh my God.
- Look at this.
This frosting.
It's, like, stylishly--
- It's beautiful.
- And there's ice.
Oh, I burped, I'm so excited.
(laughing)
Look at this snowman. - Compared to ours.
- Yeah, compare that to our snowman.
Ew.
- It's Rudolph.
It has a little red nose. - Oh yeah, it has a red nose.
Oh my God.
I mean, everything's so precise and detailed and pretty.
Look at those sleighs.
- These are beautiful cookies.
- This is the most gorgeous cookie I've ever seen.
Merry Christmas.
- Merry Christmas. - Merry Christmas.
Mmm.
Oh, that is way softer than I expected,
and it is awesome.
- It's soft and kind of crumbly.
And it's spicy.
This, I wanna destroy.
(dramatic instrumental music)
(crushing sound effects)
Destroy!
- That's delicious.
I could eat that like a sandwich.
- Yeah.
Nom nom nom nom nom nom.
It is now time to pick which one was the better experience?
The night in or the night out.
So on the one we hand, we have the night in.
Our houses didn't particularly look great.
- [Ariel] They tasted great.
- [Ned] They tasted really good.
- It was really fun just to really get in there
in the kitchen, and laugh and joke around,
and I could just imagine when Wes is a little bit older.
That's gonna totally become a Christmas tradition.
- Christmas traditions, dirty kitchens.
- Yeah.
- But on the other hand, there's the night out,
which was just stunning.
- [Ariel] It was spectacular.
- [Ned] Beautiful.
- [Ariel] Absolutely spectacular.
- [Ned] Precise.
Just magical.
I mean, I felt emotions.
I felt things.
- It transported you to this winter wonderland.
- Yeah, I felt transported.
- [Ariel] I think I've made a decision.
- [Ned] Yeah?
- It is the holiday season.
I wanna be in my kitchen with the family.
It's the night in for me.
(dinging)
- Well, for me, I mean, yes,
the experience at home was really, really fun.
But that night out looked so good.
My final decision is
the night in as well.
(dinging)
- [Ariel] Really?
- Yes.
I loved making the gingerbread house with you,
and I just love Christmas.
I love you.
- I love you.
- I love cooking at home.
I'm inspired by the fancy bakery.
- [Ariel] Me too.
- [Ned] To try and take some of those techniques
to our home creations. - And do it again.
- [Ned] Props to Frankie
and everyone at Half Baked Co.
- [Ariel] Oh my gosh.
- [Ned] That house was beautiful.
Thanks to Google for sponsoring the episode.
The Google Home Hub was very helpful
when we were cooking-- - It was incredibly helpful.
- The gingerbread house.
- Happy holidays, guys.
- Happy holidays.
(upbeat instrumental music)
(beatboxing)
- [Ariel] Are you rapping?
- Hey, Ariel, rap and chill.
(laughing)