Wishing All My Bloggy Friends A Very Merry Christmas!

I apologize for not getting this posted sooner, but there's always next year...




































































Last night I stayed up late in order to get this gingerbread house finished that I'm giving to a friend who has a house full of grandchildren. This is strictly a decorative gingerbread house because there is no place here that sells meringue powder, which means I had to use real egg whites for the Royal Icing. So, since It was not going to be edible, I went ahead and used my hot glue gun to attach all of the Graham Crackers, which is the easiest part.


Basically, you start with a large juice carton, since milk no longer comes in cartons. I used two cartons for this house. I cut the top half off one and the top one third for the taller one.

Then, you make the arched roof and secure with more hot glue. Don't worry about the gaps since you'll be filling those in with the icing later on. Oh, and don't worry about getting your fingers burned by the hot glue, because it IS going to happen. I don't care how careful you are, it still gets the best of us.

Let that dry and harden overnight. Gather all of the different candies you intend to use and have them unwrapped and ready to go, because once you make the icing you have to finish the whole house before the icing dries and hardens, I used a little pastry bag I got at the grocery store and it really helps with the drying out issue.

This is an excellent project for kids. I did 24 of these for my daughter's class when she was in grammar school, as well as an additional 28 for our son's class. Needless to say, I was up all night the night before. I took them up to school undecorated and had dozens of bowls with different candies and bowls of icing and believe me, they all had a blast. However, I had meringue powder back then, so the kids could basically eat everything but the graham crackers.

Royal Icing With Egg Whites:

2 large egg whites

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

3 cups (330 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

Directions:

For Royal Icing with Egg Whites: In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the egg whites with the lemon juice. Add the sifted powdered sugar beat on low speed until combined and smooth. The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.