Gingerbread House Party 2012

One thing that I absolutely love about the Christmas season is hosting a Gingerbread Graham Cracker House Decorating Party.  I love planning it, getting the food ready, and frantically texting Katie to bring Parmesan cheese thirty minutes before it starts.  I build all the houses ahead of time and just let people decorate throughout the night with whatever they can find on the candy table.



I had a record turn out this year.  Even Lila's best friend Hayes got to come!



For food, I served bacon wrapped shrimp, candied pecans, sparkling candied cranberries, spinach dip puffs, sea salt caramels, mulled wine, a cheese platter bien sur, and...

...three kinds of macarons! After my long battle with the macaron, I have finally, for the most part, figured them out and was able to make Candy Cane Macarons, Gingerbread Macarons, and Chocolate Chunk Macarons.

Everyone did a great job making their houses.  Some people, like my cousin Melody in the front, have been making these houses with me since first grade when my mom threw our first decorating party.

In the background you can see our almost finished dining room.  I promise to post before and after pictures once we have things like curtains.

I really enjoyed myself at the party this year and even got to decorate a house because everyone passed Lila around .

In my mind, it's officially Christmastime!  Merry Christmas!

Graham Cracker Houses

Pretty much every year since first grade I have decorated graham cracker houses.  They are very quick to make, fun to decorate, and cute to display until Christmas.  Here's a little tutorial for how to make them in the English fashion.



The first thing you need to do is make the Royal Icing.  Royal Icing is super sticky and hardens quickly.

Royal Icing
4 Egg Whites
4 Cups of Powdered Sugar
1 Tsp of Lemon Juice

Combine the ingredients with a handheld electric mixer.  If the icing appears to be too thin, add more powdered sugar.  You want it to be nice and thick so that the candy will stay on the houses.  Once you finish mixing the icing, scoop a few spoon fulls into a plastic Ziploc bag (shown above) or into a piping bag with a small tip.  Place a wet towel over the bowl of remaining icing to keep it from hardening before you're ready.



Once your icing is done, grab a box of graham crackers.  Each house needs a total of 7 graham cracker squares.  Grab your icing, and if it's in a Ziploc bag, carefully snip the very tip of the bag.  Cut small because you can always cut bigger, but you can't cut smaller.
Now, using your bag of icing, assemble four of the graham cracker squares into a box shape that will make up the base of the house (I do this on top of a paper plate so that I can "glue" them to the plate for extra support).  Run icing along all of the sides, and hold each square in place until they can stand on their own without falling (this takes a lot of practice and patience...you can do it!).
Once the bottom set of four squares is dry, take one of the remaining three squares and cut it in half with a bread knife so that you end up with two triangles.  "Glue" the two triangles on opposite tops of the graham cracker box you've made, and then "glue" the remaining two squares on top of the two triangles (this also takes a lot of practice and patience). Ta da, you have a little house!



Once all your houses are done and dry, spoon the rest of your icing into bags, pass them out to your friends, and decorate with all kinds of candy.  I typically don't eat my house in the end because the icing has raw eggs that have been sitting out for days by the time Christmas rolls around, but some people like to live on the edge and eat it anyway.

Happy Decorating!