Royal icing is what stays. I'm not great at piping and have a terrible time with royal icing that way, but have been assured by mavens here that it's just me and that it's not that bad. Unless you have terrible humidity problems it should dry hard. But...you do know that icing is just candy, right? If you prefer it because it's so thin there will be less of it, fine, but a flood of icing compared to a few mini-gumdrops might not be such a great trade=off. Of course, you also need sticky icing to put the house together and glue on any bits.

What I had in mind making were very fine lines. So no flooding like we did in the cookie workshop.

Ideally, I want people to eat the actual house. So it's better if not all covered with candy.

I'm not sure I'm good at piping very smoothly either! In the class we just used baggies. But I do have a piping bag. Never used.

Last time I made a house I could not get the sections to stay together. So I melted sugar in a shallow pan, and dipped each end into it, then quickly stuck them together. It worked very well. Of course no one could eat the seams - those parts were rock hard.

I love your solution for the connections!

The thing about very fine lines is that you need a very fine piping tip, and have to be able to squeeze hard, baggie or pastry bag, and have it come out in a smooth line. Look up the tricks for getting rid of the air, as well, because bubbles in a fine line come out as dashes. Do a lot of practice on a piece of paper before you try on the gingerbread. If you use baking parchment, you can cut up your royal icing practice lines and make homemade sprinkles. :)

But...have you tasted the gingerbread? Architectural gingerbread tends to be stiff and heavy, and not necessarily the best to eat. Not bad, mind you, but I'd rather eat a good cookie and look at the cookie house. The kids probably don't care, though. Getting to eat the house is fun even if it's not the best cookie.

May I suggest an alternative? If you're having trouble with the icing, you can use food color pens instead. They'll be duller in color on gingerbread than on a white cookie or cake, but the dark colors should work. Or maybe put a light background icing down first, and do your fine lines on that.

I haven't tried this recipe, but when I was a kid we did painted icing. You can get your fine lines with a fine art brush and a steady hand. You might find piping easier. I can do the big stuff, but I'm just awful at the fine work. They show cookies covered with the icing, but why not? You don't have to flood them. If the icing tries to run, stiffen it up with more powdered sugar, so it's still brushable, but stands better.

https://www.thriftyfoods.com/our-services/how-tos/baking/how-to-make-paintbrush-icing-for-cookies

Good luck!

A technique that helps with piping is to let the icing drop from the bag as if it were a string, not as if you are drawing with a pencil. The string of icing will fall in a straight line or in a nice curve.

plllong, when I made a gingerbread house last, a couple of years ago, it also was from Ikea. After Christmas, I tasted it. I was surprised to find it was really GOOD gingerbread. I love ginger in a lot of things. But this was the first gingerbread, commercial or homemade, that I have liked. That's another motivation for not having it too caked up with stuff.

Reminded me a bit of the Swedish Pepparkakor that my aunts used to make. My 2 aunts would fight (in a friendly way) over who had the best recipe. My mother would not bother to make them because between her 2 sisters, we always had enough. As a result, I never got either recipe. It was one of the few Christmas cookies my husband would eat. It's been years - decades - since I had any, so my memory of the flavor may be off.

lissaam, that's what the instructor in my workshop said! It must still take a lot of practice, though, because I still had fits and starts.

If you make the icing a little runnier it will flow through a fine piping tip more easily. Royal icing works very well for gluing the pieces together, you just have to prop them up for a few minutes while it hardens. And do one joint at a time.

You still need to get a good flow going with even pressure to get a nice line with thin piping. You might want to thin down the icing just a little bit. Also, from watching others do it on TV, I'm convinced that either a small amount, that you can hold in your hand, or a huge amount, that you can hold under your elbow and press like the bag of bagpipes, is easiest to get that smooth even pressure on. I have small hands, which doesn't help. :) One more good tip is to use a twist tie on the bag, and cover it with masking tape, so keeping the bag tight isn't a problem. It makes adjusting more tedious, but at least you're not pushing icing the wrong way. :) After awhile, the bit of icing clinging to the bag kind of sticks the top together as you push the rest down. I'm sure this isn't an approved technique, but anything that works is good by me!

Great to hear that Ikea's house tastes so good!

I haven't made gingerbread cookies in at least a decade. My favorite, which I usually make one batch of every year (but don't freeze them!) is Betty Crocker Moravian Ginger Cookies. They're a thin, crisp ginger molasses cookie, and completely alluring. They really suffer from rerolling, so it's good to be really strict about the cutters touching.

Thanks again for the tips.

Plllog, I’m not sure what you mean by the masking tape on twist tie on the pastry bag. Is it to get a better grip?

I'm just really bad at pastry bag, especially for fine work. Just keeping it twisted closed with pressure is a struggle for me. The twist tie and tape are just cheater ways of keeping the bag tightly closed. A bother unnecessary if you manage well without. More of an encouragement to do what you need to do to get it done.

Patience is key when building any gingerbread structure.

Save the GB scraps to use as (inside) wall supports.

Royal icing made from fresh egg whites makes the strongest glue. Avoid royal icing from a canister of meringue powder—it is the weakest ‘glue’ to use.

Do use heavy food cans to support your structure while it dries.

Sol

Can you figure out a method of stringing the frosting onto parchment and transferring it when dry? Royal icing might be too rigid unless you did short strands and getting long strands would be a problem with any frosting. Perhaps shredding, thinly slicing marzipan or fondant could work?

I think skipping candy for something an 18 mo old might have access to is smart. Gumdrops are definitely a choking hazard, as are other small candies.

If you want it to be more edible that the commercial stuff, here's a recipe for homemade fondant:

https://cake-decorating.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-rolled-fondant-icing-279864/

Caramel is the most secure glue for joining house segments but you need all your mise en place and probably must make more than one batch. It must be made in a broad shallow pan so you can dip in an entire wall edge and you must be careful with your skin. The advantage is that caramel sets up almost immediately.

Graham cracker houses are an easy approach if you are working with children.

Olychick, I’m not sure what you mean by “royal icing might be too rigid”- with fine lines rigidity won’t be an issue. Nor is piping long lines. For the walls, if you’re piping fine lines, do it before assembling the house. Piping fine lines onto parchment is possible but only used for freestanding or semi-freestanding sections as it can’t be stuck flat onto the walls and will be incredibly fragile to handle.

Lisaam, my granddaughter won’t be making the house with me. She is too much of a handful at this point. An 18 month old can get into trouble really fast. I am making the house at my home and bringing it over to theirs as a finished product.

Maybe someday!

colleen, "will be incredibly fragile to handle" that's what I meant...too rigid and fragile to lay on the planes if you tried to move from parchment.

lisaam , by "caramel" you mean just caramelized sugar?

Yes just cooked sugar and water.

I've made Gingerbread Houses for years. An 18mo old child is really too young for a nice gingerbread house. I suggest using graham crackers and use pasteurized egg whites from the supermarket. Stick a few gum drops cut up to line the windows and doors. Cut them in little pieces and they look like little lights around the windows. I used to use chocolate graham crackers (Keebler) for the roof tiles but they would be too heavy for graham crackers. You could use a piece of cardboard to make the roof, cover it with icing and stick a few gumdrops or cookies on the cardboard. Fill with icing.

The child is really young. You need to improvise because she will probably just break it all up.

A gingerbread house should be full of candy, but you can improvise using small pieces of candy and cookies.

Jane

She won't be making it. I am assembling it and decorating it at MY house then bringing it over to hers for her to LOOK at, and to be a centerpiece when the family is together. .

I am baking some separate cookies to bring with, so she can sprinkle colored sugar or jimmies on the icing. That's it. She can't even draw at her age, so picking up a few pinches and dropping them somewhere near is all I am hoping for!

I twist the top of the decorating bag several times and then fold it down against the side of the bag. Then I put the side of the bag with the folded-down top against my palm with thumb toward the top of the bag. Since the hand holds the top in place as the bag is squeezed, it doesn't leak.

I made a gingerbread menorah yesterday. The recipe I used (from Serious Eats) said that the trick to construction royal icing is to make it with very little liquid - just egg white and sugar - so it dries very quickly. I did thin it slightly with a tiny bit of water. It did dry very quickly so that I didn't need to use anything to brace the sides while they dried. I think I should have thinned it more before using it to decorate because it was hard to pipe smoothly with it so stiff.

It was just thrown together quickly because I was curious if it would work. The gingerbread scraps tasted okay, but I'd like something a bit better.