This weekend I am thinking about making a Gingerbread House. I have made about four of them. They look hard, but they are not. The trick is that you have quite a lot of dough, roll it out on the pan that you are going to bake it on (flat, no sides), and cut around the template and discard the scraps. Do not throw away, since they can be rerolled to make shutters, doors, etc.
My gingerbread house is a pretty simple affair. Four sides, two roof pieces that overhang just a bit, a door, windows on 3 sides and lots of icicles. The candy can be overdone, so I use whatever strikes my fancy, and I don't heap it on too heavy where it can cause the roof to collapse. The trick is meringue powder. Adding this to the powdered sugar frosting makes it as hard as cement and really holds the pieces together. Sometimes I have had a little help from a strategically placed piece of styrofoam at the corners. The icing has to harden fast to hold the roof on. Sometimes a little patience is required, or a strategically placed prop.
Gumdrops, candy canes and peppermint spirals are nice. You can go crazy with the candy, and I prefer to keep mine a little on the simple side. Kids love to put the candy on, but aren't too interested in the rest of the process. They lose interest fast. I usually prop a cookie tree at the corner of the house and make a walkway with licorice or Necco wafers. Like decorating real houses, decoration of the gingerbread house can be as simple or elaborate as you want.
Make the dough, cool, roll out and bake, trim to fit the patterns and let the pieces cool. Then make the frosting, pipe the pieces into place using a pastry bag, let stand to harden and decorate. Easy.
