Christmas Goodie Binge: Recipe Two. The finished product.

That... thing on the left there.  That's my gingerbread house.  I'm not sure if I ought to be proud of it, or insist that it was actually my toddler cousins that made it, and not a 19 year old girl.

I used royal icing (simplest recipe of it can be seen a bit further down), white fudge writing gels, glitter writing gels (both of which can be found at the supermarket), silver cachous and just the leftovers of a packet of 50c lolly mix from one of old school candy dispensers.  I miss those- you used to be able to find them everywhere in the 90s.  Couldn't step foot into a supermarket without having to beg mum for 20c (or 50c for the expensive ones) to get a little bag of smarties, or fizzy lollies, and all sorts of other little treats.

For your piping, if you don't have one of those piping bags, you can get a snaplock/ziplock bag and just cut a -very- small amount off the edge, depending on how thin or thick you want your icing to come out.  I'd recommend using the glitter gels for icicles- the white one looks particularly good against the royal icing, I think, although it doesn't capture so well on camera.


Royal Icing:
1 egg white at room temperature
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/2 tspn lemon juice

Whisk together in a beater, and when mixed, quickly transfer into the piping bag, or an airtight container if you won't be using it right away.  If it starts to set before you finish using it, just add a tiny bit more lemon juice.