Gingerbread Houses

Okay, this was yesterday's post...goodness things have been a bit crazy around here this week!

I have a friend who makes homemade gingerbread houses in a mold and then constructs them with icing for each cousin in the family to decorate. They are the full size ones and she makes them one at a time in this mold she has. That's love! It's really impressive but I'm not that good. So, here is my version. I can do flat! =0)

I baked up gingerbread cookies using this recipe from my friend (but I changed it up a little). I used a house shaped cookie cutter for them. Then I iced them with this royal icing recipe that I love and quickly passed them to the kids at the table for them to decorate before the icing hardened. They turned out wonderful and tasty! Once they were dry they were easy to stack up and store.

Here are the recipes again:

Gingerbread Cookies
½ c butter
½ c sugar
½ c molasses
¼ c water
2 ½ c all purpose flour
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp ginger
¼ tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp all spice

Cream butter and sugar together.
Blend in molasses, water, flour, salt, soda, ginger, nutmeg, and all spice.
Cover and chill 2-3 hours.
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Roll dough ¼ inch thick on lightly floured cutting board. (Wood works best if you have it.)
Cut with gingerbread boy cutter.
Place on ungreased baking sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes.
Immediately remove from baking sheet. Let cool completely before frosting.


Royal Icing
2 egg whites
2 tsp lemon juice
2 c sifted powder sugar


Give the egg whites a good beating with your mixer for about 30 seconds with the lemon juice and then add the sifted powdered sugar. Mix till smooth and shiny. Start frosting. You want to frost right away because this frosting will not keep and will begin to harden. Let cookies dry completely and then store in an airtight container.


And don't forget to buy lots of fun little candies and sprinkles to decorate them with.