For the last two years I have attempted to make a gingerbread house from scratch.  I can tell you is that it is much harder than Martha Stewart makes it sound.  I tried making my own templates, but the cookies rose and grew out of the shapes.  Cutting them back to size wasn’t easy.  Then I used Pampered Chef’s  mold, this was easier, but still not the easiest thing. 

This year instead of using gingerbread, I used sugar cookies.  I plopped the dough into the molds and went for it.   The dough wasn’t so sticky, and I didn’t have to worry about dealing with molasses.  The best part was that I had enough left over dough that I was able to make some Christmas sugar cookies for the kids to decorate as well as the actual house. 

The mechanics are still the same, you make the sides of the house, and the roof then stick them together with frosting.  (I just used store bought frosting this time around.)  The stuff makes great glue.  Then after frosting the entire surface of the entire assembled house, I let Ladybug and friends get to it.  The sugar cookie held up to the weight of thousands of sprinkles, the frosting, and a surprising amount of various candies. 

My biggest worry was that the structure wouldn’t hold, sugar cookies not being as dense as gingerbread.  The biggest drawback to using sugar cookies, was that the house did not smell like gingerbread all day.  The biggest upside is the kids actually ate this house.  Mine don’t usually touch gingerbread.  Next year I might just get one of the preassembled houses you can find at the store, just because I’m lazy.  But at least I now know that I can indeed make one from scratch!

-Stephanie Wright