Yesterday we got as far as cutting and baking the gingerbread pieces. Today it is time to assemble and decorate. But before we can do that we need to make some Royal Icing to use as our glue.

Royal Icing
1 each egg white
1 tsp. cream of tartar
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Beat egg white just until it loosens up. Add cream of tartar and powdered sugar. Stir until fully incorporated. You may need to add more sugar, to get a thick, frosting like consistency. Using just enough icing to adhere the pieces, build the base of your house, like in the picture below, using heavy cans of food to hold the pieces together as the icing hardens. This probably won’t be enough but I prefer to work with smaller batches and make it more often.

Use only enough icing to hold the pieces together, initially. This helps the icing dry more quickly than when it it loaded on. After it dries and the pieces are somewhat secure, you can then go back and reinforce the joints with more icing. Only after you have a solid base, with joints that have dried, can you then add the roof. The same rule applies here; add only enough icing to cement the pieces together to speed the drying process, then go back and reinforce. As you can see from the picture below, I have found it easiest to place the roof flat on the counter top and prop up the house. This works for small houses, but not large structures.

Once the house is solid, I like to attach it to a base. For smaller houses I often use 2 pieces of cardboard, taped together and covered in foil. I then use my icing to cement the house to the base. Next I cover a good portion of the base with icing to resemble snow.

Once that it dry and set it is time to gather up all your goodies for decorating and release the kids!

The list of foods that can be used to decorate Gingerbread houses is endless. Besides the standard gumdrops, M&Ms, hard candies, starlight mints, and peppermint sticks, there are all sorts of items that can be used. I’ve seen Cinnamon Trident used as bricks, pretzel sticks used as fencing, pretzel rods used as lamp posts, shredded wheat used as hay, Golden Grahams used as shingles. Sugar cones covered in green frosting make great Christmas trees while marshmallows can be formed into snowmen. I’ve even seen red pepper flakes used to resemble fallen Autumn foliage.

Of course, sometimes “less is more” but try telling that to a 3 year old, as you can plainly tell from the the opening photograph. But I didn’t expect anything less. The minute she saw all that candy, I knew I had lost any control over the situation I thought I had and soon after that, as the first of sugar rush hit her bloodstream, I felt it better to let her do it on her own and keep my fingers a safe distance away.

Needless to say, we had a lot of fun, and while this whole process may seem time consuming, it really doesn’t take that much time overall, if you split it up over a few days. And besides, this was a great way to spend some quality time with my daughter even if she was seriously hopped up on a major sugar high.

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1. Gingerbread House Part I
2. December Links of the Month-All About Gingerbread
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4. Gingerbread Pancakes
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