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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Amazing! I bought a set of mini gingerbread house kits for my kids and their cousins ages 2-4 to decorate. I read the reviews and many said the icing was terrible, never dried, fell apart etc. So I searched for gingerbread icing recipes and I am SO glad this is the one I tried. It works so incredibly well. Easy to make, dried quick and just the perfect “glue!”
Love this recipe!!! Will use again!! It dried and hardened so well and is holding my gingerbread house up so good!! Thanks for the recipe, it’s awesome!!!!!!!
This worked so well, even with kids using it.
PERFECT!!!! We used it to decorate the 3 inch gingerbread houses that we made with our Nordic Ware gingerbread house mold. The icing was perfect! It stayed soft, long enough to decorate, but dried fast enough to keep everything in place. It was a great project! We used the recipe as is and had more than enough to decorate six little houses.
of I make the day of the decorating can I prep piping bags ahead of time? how can I store so it doesn’t harden?
Yes, absolutely. We have sealed the piping bag in an airtight container for up to a week or even frozen and thawed the icing. As long as it’s sealed, it will keep.
Great recipe. Worked well last year.
This icing is amazing! So strong and it sets up almost immediately. I made a double batch to put together five houses the night before a party and still had so much left over.