how do I get my ginger bread house roof to stay on????

[BirdMom]

Frogs n chickens said:

Wish I had the powdered sugar and water suggestion yesterday at my boys school when we were putting together the gingerbread houses there.

I discovered that worked better than regular frosting a few years ago when I had fifteen to put together for a church event!

The thought of spending hours holding pieces together for days made me figure out a better way to put them together. Some people use caramelized sugar, but it hardens too quickly, you get a couple pieces together and the rest is too hard to use, and some people use melted marshmallows with a few drops of water, and that worked okay too, but was really messy. I finally just decided to make the paste of powdered sugar and a bit of water and see how that worked, and it worked perfectly!

3goodeggs said:

I guess I cheat. I use tooth picks for nails and then cover the snapped off end with frosting.

Wow! I never thought of doing that. How does it work? What do you do? Shove the toothpick through both pieces or into one and then push the other piece on top of it?​

 

[ky chicks]

I've only made one house, but I think I used actual tiny nails. I saw Martha Stewart do it, so I guess it's an acceptable thing to do for a gingerbread house!

 

[3goodeggs]

I think if it is going to eaten, there needs to be a disclaimer that there are tooth picks and nails in it holding it together. Peritonitis is not our friend.
Having said that, How I attach the roofs is that I hold the roof on, and slowly push the tooth pick through the roof and into the wall. Then I break or cut off the tooth pick. We do not eat the houses though. I figure they are so covered in dust and dog hair by the time they are done being admired as art..., I toss them.
When I have kids over for a gingerbread house party, we use royal icing and paste graham crackers on to a small juice box or a tea box. that's super fun! We use shredded wheat for thatch roofs, and chex for tile roofs. I made a big church once and use necco wafers for the tiles, that was lovely.