I agree, the chocolate cake looks moist and yummy, and I like it plain or with frosting. Whatever, just share. My girls and I made "gingerbread hovels" every year for Christmas. Lots of candy, a little gingerbread, pounds of frosting. They usually stood up just long enough for me to take a picture, then they fell over and we ate them. What a great idea for a party. Annie

I love gingerbread cookies, but I loathe decorating them. For some reason, I always feel obligated to make them all look different which is a decorating nightmare. I think I have the problem solved for this year though - I'm taking what I like to think of as the "Jackson Pollock" approach. Instead of boys and girls, I just cut out rounds and my plan is splatter them randomly with icing. Could get a bit messy, but should be quick!

You use royal icing...you either have to use meringue powder, sugar, water..or make it using real egg whites and powdered sugar. or below..is a vegan recipe... Here is a link that might be useful: Vegan Royal Icing

Depending on the weight, I used to put small gingerbread houses together with fairly stuff buttercream, the kind that crusted, and it held pretty well, but I never tried to move the houses. Usually, though, I just use the traditional 4 cups powdered sugar/3 egg white/1/2 tsp. cream of tartar icing, thick enough to be piped down the sides of the walls and holds well, but it's not particularly flavorful. Maybe not even edible, LOL. By the time our houses got decorated with every candy known to mankind, they were pretty heavy. We tended to refer to them as gingerbread "hovels", and gleefully dismantled and ate them when the urge struck. At least the buttercream was good to eat. Annie