We’ve made these graham cracker gingerbread houses for the last few years in a row, and it’s a frugal, fun way to use up your leftover Halloween Candy (if you have any left, that is). Creating a faux gingerbread house with graham crackers costs well under $5 – and that’s for as many houses as you want to make! Much less than the gingerbread house kits you see in the stores, plus each child in your household can make their own.
You’ll Need:
- Graham crackers
- Powdered sugar, cream of tartar, eggs and food coloring for frosting (see recipe below)
- Base (we used a piece of cardboard covered with aluminum foil)
- Assorted leftover Halloween candy (or, look for the bulk Brach’s candy at your grocery store)
Use a serrated knife to carefully cut the graham crackers. Use a sawing motion that doesn’t put too much pressure on the cracker, otherwise it will crack. We cut a pitched roof on the cracker lengthwise for our house.
For your frosting, combine one 16-ounce bag powdered confectioners’ sugar, three egg whites (room temp), 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 tsp. cream of tartar. This will make a stiff frosting. Add food coloring in desired color. Another method: Try warming a few tablespoons of sugar in a pan, then dip each the side of the graham crackers in it and join them together.
We found that it was easiest to secure the house to the base by putting the frosting down first. We created a frosting “foundation” and a path leading to the front door. Next was the fun part – decorating with candy!
When I was a teacher we often made these with the kids. If you start with a small empty milk or juice carton (the individual sized ones) they make a perfect base for the gingerbread houses. You just use some frosting to glue the graham crackers to the cartoon and then decorate.