The Gingerbread House

I have some really awesome memories of making gingerbread houses with my family growing up.  We really had such a great time.  Bless my dear mother for all of her time and effort she put into the prep work, phew!  I even remember having TWO houses to decorate!  It was so much fun and picking away at the houses over the ensuing weeks before Christmas was true reward.  So, in my motherly dedication, I decided we would decorate a *real* gingerbread house this year.

I was sick on Sunday, but I went ahead and baked the pieces for the house that night anyway.  I'm no architect, haha, truuuust me.  I'm all about eye-balling it, but I figured so much of the house would be covered with frosting and candy anyway, it wouldn't really matter.

Then Monday evening (I was hoping to do this earlier in the day, but mama's with small kids, you KNOW how that goes), I made the royal icing and set the house together before dinner to give it a chance to harden.  Ok, and royal icing....is the bomb *diggety*!  Where has THIS stuff been my whole life?!  Absolutely delicious and reminiscent of perfect loveliness.  I've a  mind to make me some meringue cookies now, mmmmMMM!  And, truthfully, it couldn't be easier to make.  3 medium egg whites, slowly incorporate some powdered sugar, then add more and whisk on high until you get stiff peaks.  Done. 

Here's the house pre-candy onslaught.

 The little lovelies I picked up at Winco in their candy bins.

 Here we go....

 Yeah, so I forgot to take into account the spacing increments when I cut the roof pieces out, the were too small.  BUT, the frosting was SO thick, that even though the pieces just rested inside, the frosting held them perfectly.

 Totally non-traditional what with purple gummy butterflies and all!  I wasn't about to get into doing fancy work and have Marin do her thing...that would be setting myself up for frustration right there.

 Oh, and I had a little gingerbread left over after the pieces were cut, so I shaped Marin a little Christmas Kitty by hand.  Kris thought I used a cookie cutter, it came out so nice!

 Yeah, creepy I know.  I didn't have the time or patience for piping any cute faces, so kitty got this face instead.

 Finished!

 From all sides...

Marin had so much fun and it's nice to have a real deal gingerbread house.  I would really like to do one every year as a little family tradition.  Come on, you know you want to make on too.... ;)