Royal Icing for Gingerbread Houses

A gingerbread house is only as good as the glue that holds it together! After a bit of trial and error, I found a Royal Icing for Gingerbread Houses recipe that worked for our haunted Halloween gingerbread house. It takes just 3 ingredients to make white Royal Icing. I added a few drops of food coloring to turn ours orange.

This royal icing will work great for Christmas gingerbread houses, too. For an easy to make gingerbread house, build it with graham crackers! The icing will glue the crackers together and kids can add a dab of icing to pieces of decoration candy to make them stick on the graham cracker house.

Royal Icing Recipe

4 cups powdered sugar (*add more 1/2 a cup at a time if needed to thicken)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 large egg whites (beaten)

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and cream of tartar. Use a mixer to beat in the egg whites. Continue to beat for several minutes until stiff peaks form. This takes at least 5 minutes or more.

*If consistency of the icing seems too thin, add more sugar to thicken it up. I suggest using 1/2 cup of powdered sugar at a time and continue to mix it in until icing is desired consistency. It should be thick but not lumpy.

Royal icing will harden fairly quickly – so keep it covered to avoid it drying out while you work.

Tip: You can tint your icing by mixing in food coloring.

Not only does the Royal Icing hold our house together, it covers lots of mistakes and glues the candy into place. See more recipes and holiday ideas when you follow me on Pinterest.

Have you ever made a gingerbread house? What’s your favorite way to decorate a gingerbread house?