Gingerbread houses

Gingerbread House Fun!

For our science center, this year we had a gingerbread house building opportunity.  We put together packs of the house parts (poster board) frosting, and they got to choose mixed bags of candy.  It went over as a huge hit, especially since we took a lot of the guessing out of it.  Below is the important info to make the cheating/easy houses yourself.

Gingerbread House Frosting: 

Turns out, that when you end up making near 15 gallons of frosting, the exact amounts of ingredients get fudged.  For the most part,

The recipe we used was: 

3 Cups confectioners sugar
4 teaspoons meringue powder
water to the right consistency.

We would add all the dry product to the mixing bowl and add the water slowly till the right consistency was created.

This recipe was great because it stiffened up right away, was safe to eat, and rather inexpensive.  If you want to color your frosting, I recommend the wilson color gel.  It takes a lot less to make more vibrant colors.

As to the Gingerbread House

Making 100+ house kits was no small task, and thankfully we have some lovely elves that worked hard cutting and drawing.  We used poster board - 20"x40"  and fit the below pattern on 4 times.  When making a bunch.  we used the same pattern over and over, poked holes where lines intersected and used box cutters to cut.  From there we glued (hot glue can work) the boards together.  and to a base (not listed).  Now we had a sturdy structure to decorate to our heart's desire.  Enjoy!

The pattern makes:
4 - 4"x5" (sides and roof)
2 - 4"(6" with peak)x5" (front and back)
1 - 2"x1" chimney top side
1 - 3"x1" chimney bottom side
2 - 2"-3"x1" chimney sides