Build yourself a mini gingerbread house

Girls' Life, Dec, 2004 by Kasey Simcoe

Gingerbread houses are not for the faint of heart. They require major baking savvy, as well as lots of patience. Want instant holiday gratification? Make yourself one of these adorable scaled-down versions!

WHAT YOU NEED

* 7 graham crackers

* frosting for glue (instructions below)

* candies, mini marshmallows and cookies for decorating (check out cake decor shops for edible accessories)

* a bud to give you a hand

FROSTING

* 1/2 lb. confectioner's sugar

* 3 tablespoons butter

* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

* 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons milk

Mix frosting ingredients until smooth and easy to spread. Add more sugar if frosting seems runny. Place frosting in a plastic zip-shut bag, and cut a small hole in the corner. Place one cracker flat on a cookie sheet, and pipe frosting around the edges. Stand one cracker on each side so it looks like a box with no top. On all outside corners, squeeze frosting from the top to down and around the bottom of the box. Eat a cookie while the frosting hardens. Pipe frosting on two of the box's top edges, and place the last two crackers in an upside-down V for the roof. Pipe frosting along the top of the roof where the crackers join. Eat another cookie and a few gumdrops while the frosting sets. Cover the roof with frosting to look like snow. Pipe little dabs of frosting onto the candies and other decorations, and gently place them on the house, wherever you like. Use frosting or square cookies for doors and windows, marshmallows to make snow around the house, gumdrops as bushes, whatever! You could even get candy wreaths to make the house look super-pro. Oh, and now you can eat it!