Gingerbread House

Im  doing the house blog before the actual gingerbread recipe in case anyone is checking this by scrolling down. This is the fun part anyways!!

1. First we need to make the Royal Icing this is the glue that holds the house together (literally!). In a large bowl, you'll need 2 egg whites.

2. Next I added 2 tablespoon of vinegar (the recipe calls for lemon juice but I didn't have any I read online this works as a good substitute!)

3. Whisk the two ingredients together.

4. Slowly, add in 4 cups powdered sugar, keep whisking!

5. The icing should be smooth and kinda thick. Add more icing if super runny. Set aside.

6. To make the patterns for the walls, roof, and sides of my house, I used the examples at this site. I traced it over my monitor, then I cut them out!

7. Now get a large area to roll out our dough. I used my kitchen table, make sure to flour it well!

8. Here is the dough I previous made, refridgerated and unwrapped.

9. Roll. Roll. And roll some more! I was sick, about how much extra flour I had to keep adding just to be able to roll it without sticking! I wasnt doing this recipe to really eat it, just for the house and figurines, so keeping the taste didnt really matter in this case. (but hubby of course had some bits and said it wasnt bad!)

10. Roll it out till about ⅛ inch and then lay down your patterns and outline the edges with a knife.

(here you can the approx height for the dough)

11. Place a few peices on a greased baking sheet and bake for 10-15mins at 350°F.

12. Allow the peices to full cool before trying to assemble.

13. We used a cardboard box, but any firm, flat object will work. From there you start the building! We put the icing on the cardboard to ground the walls, and worked one wall to the next. You can see we used cups for support while it dried!

14. Here hubby is holding the peices together while I "glue"! I couldnt have him just sitting around eating all the candy not helping!

15. So here is the house, finally complete. I let it dry 5 hrs before trying to decorate it. (best if construct while the kids are at school so they wont be tempted to touch it, plus theres a fun activity waiting at home when they are out!)

Ta-Dah! I only bought three bags of candy: Gummie Bears, Marshmallows, and the Sugar Drops. The rest I pulled from the nooks and crannies of my kitchen and it turned out really cute! This is our Cancun Beach themed Gingerbread House! Where the Bears surf, we have "sandmen" instead of snowmen, and family lounges around in marshmallow bikinis!

♥ Merry Christmas! ♥