Kids love building and decorating gingerbread houses, but baking the gingerbread and constructing the houses can be daunting.
Save yourself some grief with these easy "gingerbread" houses made from graham crackers and frosting. You can make just one for each of your own children or build a batch of them and throw a gingerbread house-themed party, where each child decorates their own house and takes it home at the end of the event.
How to Make a Graham Cracker "Gingerbread" House:
For each house, you will need seven double graham crackers (two rectangular crackers per piece), two quadruple graham crackers (four rectangles per piece), a serrated knife and a batch of royal icing and a cake-decorator bag (plastic sandwich bags with a small hole poked in one corner work just fine).
Step 1: Fill your bag with royal icing. Using the serrated knife, saw off the top left and right corners of one of the quadruple crackers to create what will be one of the house's gables. Repeat with the other quadruple cracker.
Step 2: Place one double cracker on the table and pipe icing along all four edges. Working quickly, place the house's four walls (including the two with gables, which should stand across from each other) onto the icing and pipe more icing where the crackers touch vertically.
Step 3: Pipe icing along the top edges of the house and rest the two remaining double crackers on top of it to form a roof. Allow time to dry and harden.
Once it's time to decorate, set out candy and give the kids some gingerbread house decorating ideas. Each child should also have a plastic sandwich bag of royal icing that's tied off and has a small hole poked in one corner.
Write the name of each child on a paper plate and place the finished houses on the plates as they dry. Once the party is over, the kids can take home their creations.
It's a perfect recipe for a messy--but fun!--winter holiday party.
