Festive Holiday Cookie Houses

Decorating gingerbread houses is a fun holiday tradition, but when you're just too busy to bake gingerbread, these cookie houses made with graham crackers are just as cute but nowhere near as time consuming!

You'll need to make some royal icing, but everything else can be assembled with store-bought items.

Royal Icing Recipe ~

6 tablespoons egg white substitute (equivalent to 2 large eggs)
2-1/2 to 3 cups confectioners' sugar

Beat the egg whites in a mixer on high speed, slowly adding the sugar a little bit at a time (start with 2-1/2 cups). Continue beating until the icing is glossy and forms stiff peaks; if it doesn't form stiff peaks, add more sugar (totaling no more than 3 cups).

To keep your royal icing from drying out while you decorate your house, dampen some paper towels or a clean kitchen towel and lay it over the top of the mixing bowl.

Fill a pastry bag with the royal icing and get ready to decorate! If you don't have a pastry bag, fill a resealable plastic bag and trim a tiny bit off one of the corners.

Building the House ~

You can build your house on anything you'd like, but we used a 10 by 14 inch cake board wrapped in gift wrap.

For each side of the house, we used a whole graham cracker; the same goes for both sides of the roof. For the front and back of the house, we used whole graham crackers with the top half cut into a triangle.

When you need to cut shapes from the graham crackers to assemble your house, soften them briefly to avoid cracking.

Wrap the graham cracker in a barely damp paper towel and microwave on 50% power for about 10 seconds. Then, use a very sharp knife to cut the shape you need.

Sometimes building the frame of the house is a little tricky; if you're having trouble getting the framework to stay up, you can create an edible "glue" with melted brown sugar. To make it, heat about a tablespoon of brown sugar in a saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently. Keep your eye on it - sugar burns very easily!

When it reaches a liquid consistency, remove it from the heat and dip the edges of your graham crackers and "glue" as needed. You'll need to work fast because the sugar hardens fairly quickly. Once the glue hardens, you can go over the seams with your royal icing.

Now that your house's frame is assembled, you can start the fun part - decorating!

Decorating Tips ~

For our house, we used mini frosted shredded wheat cereal for the "shingles" on the roof, as well as the front walk. We used spiced gum drops for the trees at the front of the house, as well as along the walk. Finally, we added M&Ms; to the awning and the front door!