What's the best icing for Gingerbread houses, and what is the recipe.?

Answer 1

Here a some recipes for making icing:
ICING

(makes 2 cups, you'll probably have to make several batches)



Egg White Icing

3 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 (16 oz box) confectioners powdered sugar

In a large bowl combine all ingredients. Beat 7 minutes with an electric mixer until smooth and thick.. A good test is when a knife blade drawn through the icing leave a clean cut. Store in a tightly sealed container if you are not using it right away.

Method 2:
MERINGUE POWDER ROYAL ICING

3 Tablespoons Meringue Powder (available where cake decorating supplies are sold)
1 1 LB box (3 3/4 cups) confectioner’s sugar
4-6 Tablespoons cold water

Put dry ingredients together, add half the water, then add more water as needed. The consistency of the icing should be thick, where a knife can be drawn through it leaving a clean path...but not so thick it won’t go through an icing tip. Takes about 2-3 minutes with this method.

Method 3:
Mixing icing is a double edged sword. It’s much easier to mix it all ahead, but you need to use it in a timely fashion or it hardens. I usually mix it up, and try to fold the pastry bags over to keep the top from drying out. If I need to keep icing overnight I put it in a Tupperware container right in the bags. They sell “covers” for the tips to be used for storage, but in my opinion they don’t make that much difference. You are going to have to unclog the tips anyway if you leave them sit for any period of time.

Keep toothpicks handy for cleaning out tips, and a paint brush works well too for getting into the points of the tips.

Toothpicks work well for helping correct errors, keep some handy. Coloring icing :

Color small batches of this icing as needed with Wilton decorating pastes, which are much more intense and not watery like liquid food colors.

Using the pastry bags: This is a simple matter of practice. Practice on wax paper before you try and decorate on the house.

You might also want to decorate the house pieces flat before putting them together. It can be much easier to do intricate decorations flat rather than trying to work vertically.

Answer 2

This sticky icing is the cement for gingerbread houses. Be sure to keep a damp cloth over it, though, or it will harden in the bowl.

Ingredients

4 egg whites
6 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

Directions


In an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with 1 cup of the sugar and the cream of tartar until smooth. Add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at time. Mix until creamy and smooth.

TESTER'S TIP
If you plan to eat your cookie house and are concerned about raw eggs, substitute 2 tablespoons water and 2 teaspoons Wilton meringue powder (available at stores that sell cake-decorating supplies) for each egg white.

Answer 3

i in my opinion made one some days in the past and the icing worked completely, I had to make it two times because I used somewhat too a lot. ROYAL ICING 3 egg whites a million/2 tsp. cream of tartar 4 cups (a million lb.) unsifted confectioners’ sugar nutrition coloring (non-obligatory) Vanilla, lemon, peppermint or different extract (non-obligatory) In a huge bowl, whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar until eventually foamy. Sprinkle interior the sugar gradually, whipping all the at the same time as. The extra you whip the icing, the stiffer it’ll be and the swifter that's going to harden up. in case you want to “paint” with the icing, you should use nutrition coloring to create diverse colorations and skinny the icing with some drops of water so that's going to bypass. desire that facilitates!

Answer 4

Royal Icing is what is usually used for gingerbread houses, because it dried hard. I'm sorry I don't have a recipe, but I'm sure you could find one at www.foodnetwork.com.

Good luck.

Answer 5

decorative icing because it sticks better.

BUT! I love to use the wipped icing for the "snow" on the ground. Because its so easy to lay down...but just know it takes a day to dry.

Decorative icing can be bought in the little tubes at Walmart in the baking isle.
And then to "glue" the walls together, some people like to use a mixture of egg whites with the frosting...it makes it almost like cement. Just be sure to use a hair blow dryer to help dry it faster.

Answer 6

I would just use sugar and water and mix it up. It's very sticky, so it holds everything together well. I wouldn't spend any money on all those different icings... just sugar and water--it's great for holiday crafts! :)