How to Make Mini Gingerbread Houses

Making mini gingerbread houses is a holiday tradition for many families.

We all remember the story of the witch's gingerbread house and the little children who could not resist taking just one bite. Children have never been able to resist gingerbread houses, but often the large, elaborate creations that appear around Christmas are far too complicated for small hands to even help with assembly. You can make these mini gingerbread houses together as a family, and if anything gets broken, just eat it and grab another graham cracker.

Things You'll Need

• Stiff icing
• Icing tube dispensers
• Graham crackers
• Small candies for decorating
• Posterboard
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Cut out several small squares of posterboard. These will serve as the bases for your gingerbread houses, so make them as large or small as you wish. Make sure they are slightly larger than a full-size graham cracker at the very least.

2. 

   Pack a large amount of icing into the icing dispensers. This will insure that you have enough "cement" to make the houses without having to stop to refill your decorating tube. You should use thick, sticky icing that will hold the graham crackers and candies in place.

3. Ice a graham cracker "floor" to the posterboard. This will be the foundation for your house.

4. Stand four walls up around the floor. You will need to use a fair amount of icing between the walls and the floor and between individual walls to hold everything in place. If necessary, work two at a time on each house so that one person can use the icing as mortar while the other holds the graham crackers in place until the icing sets up slightly.

5. Give your house a roof. You can use two graham crackers leaning together and iced in place at an angle, or you can just lay another graham cracker flat on top of the four walls. The latter is obviously a much simpler approach and is a good one for kids who want to do this project all on their own. The slanted roof will require two people: one to hold it in place and one to ice it.

6. 

   Let your house set up for about 20 minutes. This will give the icing a chance to set and will make the houses a little sturdier before you start decorating.

7. 

   Decorate your mini gingerbread houses. You can use round colored candies, gum drop trees, traditional gum drops or even mini candy canes. Use the icing to fix all the decorations to the houses.

8. Let your houses dry overnight. You may find that a few pieces of candy have fallen off the next morning. Touch up the houses and make repairs using the left over icing.

Tips & Warnings

• Many graham cracker companies make gingerbread graham crackers around the holiday season specifically for this purpose.

Resources

• This gingerbread house site has a good recipe for stiff icing.
• This icing works just as well as glue.