Gingerbread House Icing is the perfect royal icing recipe to hold together all of your baked gingerbread cookies!
We start with Perfect Gingerbread Cookies or even Sugar Cookies as a base. This gingerbread house icing is quick drying, sturdy and strong.
Gingerbread House Icing is the perfect “glue” for your baking! This can be used to make full gingerbread houses however, we also use it to make gingerbread houses out of graham cookies or mini gingerbread houses. (I have the cutest mini gingerbread house cookie cutters).
How to Make Gingerbread House Icing
Gingerbread house icing is more than just icing, it’s the glue to hold your gingerbread house together. This is most definitely the most difficult part of making a gingerbread house… but not anymore! The key is to make sure you have the right icing that dries quickly and holds well.
This gingerbread house icing uses raw egg whites and while I’m completely fine using them raw, if you’d prefer you can also buy pasteurized egg whites in a carton to use in this recipe.
You’ll want to make sure your eggs are at room temperature.
As you begin mixing the ingredients they will form a pasty icing mixture however you’ll need to continue mixing to make sure it’s thick and glossy. When you run the back of a spoon through the icing, it should hold its shape.
If your gingerbread icing is over mixed, it can become too thick making it difficult to pipe. In this case, you can add vanilla or water to thin it out a little bit (about 1/4 teaspoon at a time).
This recipe can also be used to make smiles on gingerbread men and of course to decorate your house or even to attach decorations to Sugar Cookies or Gingerbread Cookies. It’s a thick icing, intended to be used as glue so it doesn’t work well as an icing to decorate entire cookies.
More Christmas Baking You’ll Love
- The BEST Christmas Cookies
- Christmas M&M Cookies
- Mexican Wedding Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Eggnog Cookies
- Hot Chocolate Brownie Cups
Gingerbread House Icing
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 large egg whites room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, whip egg whites until foamy, then add cream of tartar. Continue to mix for 30 seconds.
- Add in powdered sugar a little bit at a time mixing well.
- Once the powdered sugar is incorporated, turn mixer to high and continue beating until thick and the icing holds its shape (about 3-5 minutes).
- Store well covered.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dessert
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Perfect!
This hardens really well
We have never found a really good gingerbread icing. I wanted to try again and found this one. OH MY GOSH!! It worked so good! My kids were able to put the graham crackers together and it’s stuck the first time. That’s so nice to not wait for the icing to get hard. I will remember this recipe and it was easy to make. Thank you!! You have made my gingerbread a lot easier!
Can you please give a sense of how much house this recipe is appropriate for? One large one? More? Less? We’ve got 5 mediumish sized houses (about 6” cubed). Thank you!
It can depend on the size of the house and how many decorations you add but it should do an average-sized house.
The BEST glue icing ever! Makes up in s flash! Great consistency! Beautiful gingerbread houses every time. Thank you. !!! Grandma Honeybee
I am so glad to hear this icing worked so well for you!
Great icing. Never made it before but beats the stuff that comes in the kits Will make this going forward.
This was my first time trying royal icing, and I checked out a few recipes. This one seemed the best option, and I’m happy to say it came out great! I’m looking forward to using it again in the future!
Works perfectly
Hi!
How do I store the icing? At room temperature? And how long can I keep it stored?
We recommend this frosting be stored in the refrigerator in a zippered bag with all the air squeezed out for a few days.
Hi Alison,
Can’t wait to try this, as in the past most icings haven’t stuck. So can you eat this icing with the house? Or do I need do use another kind? And do you have a separate one for gingerbread cookies to use? Thanks so much.
You can eat this icing but it becomes quite hard and crunchy.