Mini Graham Cracker (Gingerbread) Houses

Here's a how-to on the houses. This was a very successful craft and an easy way to do Gingerbread Houses. However, the construction of the houses is quite difficult and time consuming and takes a lot of patience. This is not a craft to do quickly. It probably took me over an hour to construct the houses. I did that the night before so the frosting would have overnight to dry. The inspiration for these houses came from a Martha Stewart Living postcard. I did not have the directions - so I found advice on the Internet and in magazines and winged the rest! You can see the postcard in the background of the tomato paste photo.

For 6 mini houses you will need:
1 box of graham crackers
1 can store-bought frosting (NOT whipped)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
large knife
some canned food from your pantry
various candies for decorating

Add the 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar to the frosting and stir to make it stiffer.



The front and back of each house uses one full graham cracker with the top cut into a triangle to make the peak. The cutting of the cracker is tricky. The best technique is to place the cutting edge of a large knife from the point of perforation on the top to the point of perforation in the middle (see photo) at the same time. Apply gentle pressure rocking the knife back and forth until the piece breaks off.









The sides and the roof of each house use a half sheet of graham cracker.










Now comes construction. You HAVE to construct the sides in this order or the roof will not fit (speaking from experience here!) Put one of the side pieces down flat. Pipe frosting on the top edges of the cracker. (I used a pastry bag with a writing tip, but you could also use a gallon size plastic baggie with a small hole cut in the corner - no precision is needed for the simple houses that I made.) Put a triangle piece down sideways on each line of frosting. Use cans to help the sides from falling as you pipe more frosting on all sides to shore up the construction. Add the other side on top and very carefully try to pipe extra frosting inside. Carefully set the house right side up.






Finally, put on the roof pieces. I had a big gap on the top of my roofs, so I just piped frosting across them to look like snow.














As for decorations, I was on a time and money budget, so we used only candy I was able to find at Target. I limited the colors to red and green to give a more cohesive look to the houses (also, the Martha Stewart houses are monochromatic, but use candy store candy). I cut candy canes into 2 pieces - sticks and arches. I found the best way to cut them without breakage was to use a sawing motion with the knife.










We used ice cream cones for trees, coconut shavings for snow, sticks of gum for doors and walkways, square pieces of gum for windows, licorice for roofs, M&Ms for roofs, and many other candies for decorations (Dots, Cadbury chocolates, licorice bark, gumdrops) and the same frosting recipe as "glue". We added some Teddy Grahams as the houses' inhabitants posing outside their homes! The scale is perfect.










Of course, real Gingerbread House have to be 100% edible (as these are), although we are not eating ours - we have enough leftover candy to keep us happy for quite a while!