If you want an A+ gingerbread house, you need the best gingerbread house icing. When planning your gingerbread house, the icing is a very important part. Gingerbread houses are a great way to set the scene for the holidays and impress visitors to your home.
The icing on a gingerbread house serves several functions. It is both decoration and also the "glue" which helps hold the gingerbread house pieces together. If you want your house to look better and last longer, you need to have the right kind of icing and you need to know how to apply it properly.
Royal Icing Recipes for Gingerbread
Gingerbread is typically iced with royal icing recipes. Traditional royal icing is made from fresh egg whites
and icing sugar.
Basic Gingerbread House Icing Recipe
2 egg whites
5 cups confectioners' sugar
In a large bowl, lightly whisk egg whites. Gradually beat in approximately confectioners' sugar. The icing
should be smooth and stand in firm peaks.
Today however, due to health regulations and food safety, many people use a dried albumen-based powder instead
of the fresh egg whites. Many people also find it more convenient to use the powder and not have to deal with
messy eggs.
Here are our favorite royal icing recipes for gingerbread house construction:
Royal Icing Recipe #1
1 pound of confectionery sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 egg whites
Beat slowly until stiff peaks form. Put icing in a pastry bag or plastic bag with a hole cut in the bottom corner
to act as a pastry bag.
Royal icing recipe #2:
4 teaspoons dried albumen-based powder (such as ‘Meri White)
4 tablespoons cold water
500g icing sugar
1 teaspoon glycerin (prevents the icing from drying too hard)
Beat slowly until the icing is smooth and stands in firm peaks. Use a pastry bag or plastic bag with a hole to
apply the icing to the gingerbread.
These icing recipes should help you create beautiful, amazing gingerbread houses. See our decorating pages for
creative ways to use icing you may not have thought of.
Have an Icing Recipe or a Tip to Share?
Do you have a favorite Royal Icing Recipe or even just a tip for icing gingerbread houses? Share it!
Other Visitors's Icing Recipes and Tips
Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
BBC Food's Eggless Royal Icing
Here's one for those who are health conscious, vegan, and/ or have egg allergies. It is from the BBC Food's website and was used with great success in ...
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Mix half the juice and the butter until smooth then add the sugar bit by bit....
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Every year I make a big heavy gingerbread house and have trouble getting my walls to stick together. Last year I discovered that if you microwave a humbug ...
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Ingredients 4 eggs 100 g caster sugar 100 g plain flour 1 tsp vanilla extract 25 g butter
Method 1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6.
2....
ROLLED FOUNDANT
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ROLLED FOUDANT 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin 1/2 cup cold water 1/2 cup glucose 1 teaspoon glycerin 2 tablespoon solid vegetable shortening 2 lbs....
Crunchy peanut butter ½ cup Icing sugar sifted 2 tbsp Cocoa powder 1 ½ tbsp Dark chocolate melted 100gm ...
icing
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I use white chocolate to glue my houses together as my son is allergic to egg. Still works well as long as you get the white chocolate melts that are quite ...
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