Growing up, I got to decorate a gingerbread house ever single year. My grandmother spent hours and hours baking the house pieces so that my cousins, my brother, and I could enjoy the tradition. She made real gingerbread and real royal icing with egg whites. We took pictures with our houses every year and it’s so fun to flip through them all!
Now that I am grown up, I knew it was my turn to start my own tradition. I found Wilton gingerbread house cutters at Michaels. I baked chocolate cookies (my friends and I are not fans of actual gingerbread) and I made royal icing for the first time. We all brought lots of candy and went to town!
Here is my finished house:
Here are the houses my girlfriends made…
I just love the way Chelsea did her roof!
Michelle got so creative with her Santa and elves on one side, and a snowman on the other side.
Here is my brother’s girlfriends’ house. Her grinch is so cute!!
The chocolate cookies held up perfectly against the weight of the rest of the house plus all the frosting and candy. And my first time making royal icing was a success, woo hoo! I do think I overbeat it, but it still hardened well and held up against the weight. Thanks everyone for the encouragement!
Cookie Carrie 
Everybody did a fabulous job! It looks like it was tons of fun 🙂
Such a cute house!! I want to come to your party!!!
you’re welcome any time!
All of your houses are wonderful. So neat that you made them out of chocolate cookie dough too. Isn’t working with royal icing fun!!
oh Paula, I’ve got a long way to go to work with RI the way you do!! But at least now I know I can make it and experiment!
What a fun tradition! Love them all 🙂