Easy ‘Gingerbread’ Houses

I’ve been wanting to make gingerbread houses with my children for a while now, but I never had a whole day to devote to making the gingerbread, letting it cool, cutting it just so, and constructing little houses without them falling apart.

Then I remembered a way to make little gingerbread houses without the complications. Graham crackers! I broke the Graham crackers in half, made some icing, and soon had little houses built on little plates for each of my children.

Then the fun began. When the decorators are all 5 and under, it basically becomes an exercise to see how much candy can be stuck onto a structure. They all had a lot of fun with it, and even Oscar (2) was able to make a decent looking house. I had my own to decorate so my OCD could be satisfied by some shingles that actually ran in a straight line.

What you need to make your own mock gingerbread houses –
Graham crackers
Icing
Random candy

To make the icing –
Whisk 4 cups of powdered sugar,
2 egg whites,
1 teaspoon water,
and 1 teaspoon vanilla (use clear vanilla if you have it, or your icing will turn out slightly brown like mind did)

Put the icing in a zip lock bag and cut off a small corner. Pipe icing onto Graham crackers to glue them together.

Using two Graham cracker halves, form tbe peak of the roof and glue into place with icing. Measure and cut Graham crackers with a serrated knife to fit into the ends of the roof.

Decorate with candy or chocolate chips, using icing as glue.

Sprinkle the finished product with powdered sugar for a ‘snow’ effect.

Don’t eat it all in one sitting!