Easiest way to stick a gingerbread house together?

[Ironfloor269]

I bought a gingerbread house from Ikea. I've never, ever assembled one before. DD is 8 and quite good at baking, decorating etc. So I thought I'll leave her to it. What is the easiest way to do this? Can I just buy a tube of royal icing from the supermarket or do i have to make it at home? Is it messy?

TIA!

Does it not have the icing in the box to stick it together? Boxes we have used always have.

It should have contained the icing, most boxed ginger bread houses do. If not a box of Royal icing and some water will do. Royal icing is the only icing that will work well as it sets like concrete x

I don't think the Ikea ones have icing.

An egg white whipped with 250g of icing sugar did the job for us.

You need more than just royal icing, you need to add meringue powder (available to buy online or sometimes in your supermarket) to make it thicker and able to support the house, plus cream of tartar also available at supermarkets.

For quantities etc see this video here

And then to really see how a professional who sells her houses decorates them, have a look at her here

We attempted to put together two gingerbread houses this week, one from Ikea and one from Tiger. Neither had icing included.

I totally buggered up the first one (think broken biscuits, crying children and everyone taking a few minutes to regroup before attempting the second one...) but the second one was ok.

I just made up icing sugar and water paste and put it in an icing bag, that sort of worked. Then the kids squirted the stuff all over it and covered it in sweets. It's definitely not a thing of beauty but the gingerbread is surprisingly tasty...

You need royal icing. The stuff that granny used to put on the Christmas cake and it would break your teeth. It’s basically icing sugar with egg white and beaten. Or you can buy a box of royal icing sugar which is made up with water and will do the same job. Needs to be relatively thick or it won’t hsve enough initial hold to stick it together before it sets like concrete

I bought a tub of ready mixed royal icing from Waitrose and it worked brilliantly to hold it together and there was more than enough to decorate it too and the sweets stuck to it aren’t going anywhere!

Egg white and icing sugar here, set like concrete and very quickly.

Thanks for the replies. I guess I have no way around making royal icing then.

@souponmytable - meringue powder?? Cream of tartar??

The ones that do have icing in usually don't have royal icing, just normal icing in a squeezy tube. It does the job.

I made the Ikea one for the first time a few days ago. I used the royal icing (has powdered egg white already in it) which you add water to. My dd (4) and I stuck some decorations on first then I constructed it later.

I propped up the sides with small spice jars and also stuck it to the cake board at the base. Then after 30 minutes it was dry enough to remove the inner supports (more spice jars) and stick the roof on. I proper up the roof so it couldn't slide apart with canned fruit. Then after it had dried I used the left over icing to stick more sweets on.

I used a hand whisk to mix the icing sugar with the water (on the box it implys you need a proper mixer) and I used clingfilm over the icing during the drying time so it didn't dry out. I pressed the clingfilm into direct contact with the icing in the bowl.

One box of icing was good for the house and also a 20cm Christmas cake I iced at the same time. In fact there was a bit left over.

Have fun!

@happysunr1se, I made the gingerbread house. Note to self: never, ever buy gingerbread thins if you want your house to stay up right for more than two seconds. It's the work of the devil.

It looks ok for a first attempt. I didn't know about the tip of keeping tins until the sides dry up so there was a lot of collapsing and frustration.

Superglue. And staples. Then put it in the bin as it will be an ughly disappointment and inedible.

The first few years we used royal icing. Now I just get a packet of ready made "designer icing" in a sachet you can screw a nozzle on to (normally in the home baking aisle) which I find works perfectly well.

Do let the house set before decorating though.

kits always have icing in them.
We I made a house, train and tree this year.

😂