Christmas Gingerbread House

We made and constructed a Gingerbread House last Christmas, it was duly transported to Church for everyone to devour.  We've made another one this year, however it will be devoured by us and those coming for Christmas Dinner at ours this year.

It is such a fun activity and keeps my daughters busy for quite a while.  We make the dough from scratch, cut out the pieces using templates then 'glue' it all together using royal icing.  I roll out the dough slightly thicker than usual as the house has to hold the weight of all the icing and sweets piled on top of it.  We also put a clear boiled sweet into the windows of the cut out pieces as it melts to make a strong window pane, this means that the windows are filled in and not a void/weak point of the house.  Once the house is built we usually wait until the next day to decorate it.  This enables the gingerbread to dry out and the icing to properly harden. 

As with most things at Christmas time, the 'less is more' mantra does not apply!

You can find the gingerbread dough recipe that we used here.