The Gingerbread House Battle

My first and last attempt to make a gingerbread house was a disaster. I think I bought the kit for a Halloween House and had these great ideas of how it would turn out and how much fun it would be to do it with Bella. I am not exactly sure where I went wrong but for the life of me I could not get the House to adhere to the icing. I remember giving up after about 30 minutes and buying one made of foam! A few weeks ago while I was at Michael's I saw that Rice Krispies was selling these awesome molds to make a holiday house out of Krispie Treats. I was so excited because I know Rice Krispie treats are more durable then gingerbread so I knew I would not be defeated by it! But at the time, it was not on sale and I did not have a Michael's coupon on me so I said, I will come back and get it with a coupon. Fortunately for me the next week they were on sale. So I headed to Michael's armed with my ad ready to buy the kit, I even bought the Krispie Treat supplies when I was at the grocery store. I am sure you know where this is going, they were sold out of the kits. So there I stood staring at about 20 of the Wilton Gingerbread House kits and I felt like I was staring right into the eye of an opponent. I decided to give it another try. My sister suggested that I make my own royal icing and I would have done that but I did not have enough meringue powder (yes I always have this on hand!). Today, I felt ready to give it another shot. I cheated a little and bought a styrofoam board to give the gingerbread a steadier foundation. I also bit the bullet and used the icing mix and worked with it until I thought it was the right consistency. Much to my surprise I was able to put it together without it falling. Adding groves to the styrofoam helped with that! Now trying to decorate the house with a 4 year old that only wants to eat the candy and the icing was challenge but I think we persevered! I pretty much went through all of the leftover Halloween Candy (thanks for the idea Nikki) to decorate the house. We used starbursts as the walkway, m&m's as lights, a tye-die fruit rollup for the windows, and other candies from the kit. As for the roof, Bella decided to put the candies on that way and it worked for me. We were about an hour into the project and I did not have the patience to make a pretty pattern with them! Finally I spread the rest of the icing onto the styrofoam and we sprinkled white glitter over it to look like snow! Next time I will definitely use my own royal icing so that I can decorate it a little better but I am still proud of myself because this one is still standing and doesn't look too bad! It is pretty safe to say that I have now evened the score! Wilton Gingerbread House Kit 1 - Marisa 1!