Gingerbread Houses

We love our friends, Chris and Carrie Randall..

We love our friends more when they invite us over for this:

Family Night with the Randalls, decorating Ginger Bread Houses!

Gingerbread House Template

Gingerbread House Recipe

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1-1/3 cups molasses
4 eggs
8 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 pounds confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
6 egg whites

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the molasses and eggs. Combine 1 1/2 cups of the flour, baking soda, salt, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger; beat into the molasses mixture. Gradually stir in the remaining flour by hand to form a stiff dough. Divide dough into 2 pieces.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes. Place pieces 1 inch apart onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

 ROYAL ICING 
(a.k.a super glue for ginger bread houses)

3 egg whites

4-5 cups powdered confectioner’s sugar

Directions: beat until nice foamy stiff peaks form.

This recipe decorated 2 houses, generously. Truly, this stuff is amazing! It could double as nail hole filler. I learned that a little ziploc bag is handy for piping the icing if you don’t have the fancy cake decoration bags, couplers and metal tips.