Every year when Christmas rolls around, I’m tempted to build a gingerbread house, which I haven’t done since I was a kid. However, I’m always afraid that it’ll collapse and leave a mess of cookies, icing, and sugary toppings all over my floor. Thankfully, I found a hack online showing how to hold a gingerbread house together using caramelized sugar — and honestly, I’m shocked I didn’t think of this myself.
Why do gingerbread houses fall apart?
The most common culprit behind a gingerbread house collapse is not allowing enough time for the glue or royal icing to fully harden. If you try to move or decorate your house before whatever adhesive substance you’re using is completely cured, it will almost certainly fall apart. Ideally, you want to wait at least three hours after putting up the walls and roof before you start decorating. With all the other things that need to be done this time of year, setting your project aside for a while might not be a problem. But if you’re making gingerbread houses with friends — especially very young friends, like grandchildren, nephews, and nieces — you’ll likely want a speedier option that lets you take photos of your gingerbread masterpiece right away.
How do you keep a gingerbread house from falling apart?
Luckily, TikTok user @tastyentertaining shares her simple trick for stabilizing a gingerbread house, and it only requires one ingredient: sugar. In a dry nonstick pan, she pours one cup of granulated sugar over medium heat. Occasionally giving the pan a shake, she waits for it to caramelize and form a brown syrup. This process takes about eight to 10 minutes, and it’s important to closely watch the sugar to make sure it doesn’t burn.
After the syrup forms, she turns the heat to low and dips the ends of the gingerbread walls in the sugar. Next, she sticks one syrupy end of the wall against another before gently pressing for 10 seconds to secure them together. She then repeats this process with the remaining parts, including the roof, to form the house shape. Just be very careful doing this, because a caramelized sugar accident can result in a nasty burn (ouch!).
Once the house is built, she carefully lifts it up and dips the bottom in the syrup before mounting onto a board to decorate it with icing and candy. Watch this entire gingerbread-building process happen in seconds here:
After working so hard to create your masterpiece, the only question left is, where’s the best place to put it? Gingerbread houses are best stored in a cool, dry place away from heat or moisture that could cause the icing and toppings to melt. Want to keep your house around for a while? Wrapping it in plastic wrap each night ensures that bugs or dust won’t get to your creation, allowing it to last up to a year.
Thanks to this genius tip, my perennial holiday dilemma is solved — and the answer was right in my pantry all along. Now I just need to make a last minute dash to the store, grab a gingerbread house decorating kit, and let my inner child loose!
Pour sugar into a heavy pot. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring often, until the sugar melts and liquefies - about 5 to 10 minutes. Watch closely to avoid burning, and be very careful handling it because it is extremely hot. Use to glue gingerbread cookie or graham cracker pieces together to make candy houses.
Fit Everything Together with Melted Sugar or Royal Icing
The second way is to use burnt sugar as your glue. Just melt C&H® Pure Granulated Cane Sugar in a pan on the stove, dip the gingerbread parts in and hold them together for a few seconds. Then, presto! You've created a solid house.
Just melt the sugar in a pan over low heat. You want to allow it to turn brown, but make sure not to burn it (otherwise it won't taste so great). Then take your gingerbread house pieces, dip the edges in melted sugar and hold them together for a few seconds. That's it!
Melting together sugar and water and heating it for long enough will eventually create an extremely hot sticky sugar syrup that you can use to stick key pieces together. The upside, it sets quickly and hard.
Gingerbread houses fall apart when you're not using the right icing. The icing that comes in gingerbread house kits is not sticky enough and does not have the right consistency. It also takes too long to dry, which causes gingerbread houses to fall apart.
Pour sugar into a heavy pot.Place over medium heat and cook, stirring often, until the sugar melts and liquefies - about 5 to 10 minutes. Watch closely to avoid burning, and be very careful handling it because it is extremely hot. Use to glue gingerbread cookie or graham cracker pieces together to make candy houses.
So to make sure our walls could stand strong, we sandwiched melted marshmallow cement between two graham crackers. The marshmallow adds weight, which helps stabilize the structure. It also acts as a sealant, ensuring that the cracker won't crumble.
The royal icing (essentially the glue that holds up the walls) will have a chance to dry and make the structure sturdier, which will create a stronger base for the weight of the candy decorations.
To achieve crispy, sturdy gingerbread, Lomas recommends letting the baked gingerbread pieces dry out for a day or two. Don't put the pieces in the refrigerator or keep them in a closed container, as this keeps the moisture in. “The longer it dries out, the easier it is to work with for construction purposes,” she said.
Royal icing is the most reliable material for putting your gingerbread house together, but there are a few alternatives. Marshmallow fluff works admirably. If you have the money, you could buy edible glue intended for cake decorating. Or make your own edible glue with a water and tylose powder mixture or gum paste.
It dries fairly quickly (a few minutes) and is thin, clear, and edible. It's strong enough to hold small pieces together, but I wouldn't count on it for anything heavy duty. It probably isn't the best option for gluing your gingerbread house walls, but it's perfect for securing those small decorations to them.
Every house needs sturdy walls, right? Royal icing is the “glue” that holds the house together. It's also the glue adhering any candies to the walls and roof. As you can see in these photos, I covered the roof with royal icing before piping the buttercream on.
If the dough isn't too sticky, you can roll it out between sheets of parchment paper. Keep cookie cutters from sticking to the dough by misting them very lightly with cooking spray or dipping the edges into flour.
Pipe a small mound: For flat, stand-up decorations, pipe a small mound of icing (about the width of your decoration) and insert your candy decoration figure. Place directly: Candy can be placed directly on freshly piped decorations such as garlands or iced surfaces, no extra icing needed.
After the gingerbread is cut out, Lomas recommends putting it into the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to three days. Chilling the dough before it goes into a hot oven gives the butter a chance to firm up and reduces how much it spreads when baking.
Introduction: My name is Saturnina Altenwerth DVM, I am a witty, perfect, combative, beautiful, determined, fancy, determined person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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