Easy Gingerbread "Houses"

I forgot to post this fun night that we had with friends over the Christmas break.

  We wanted to make gingerbread houses with the kids and came across a great idea
 on pinterest that you only make the front of the gingerbread house. 
That way you don't have to worry about the structure and
get to focus on the fun part....the decorating.

The gingerbread "houses" are basically
 huge cookies (the size of a 9x13 pan)
 made from your choice of gingerbread recipes.

Here's how we did it.

Rolled out the dough right onto a piece of parchment
and cut out pieces for the windows and door.
(This made transferring the cookies so easy and no tearing or ripping happened)

 I was making so many I made a
template out of card stock and traced it with my knife.

 

Baked them and let them cool. 

 

The recipe I used had no shrinkage or spreading,

so the way they looked when I cut them

was the way they looked when they were done.

 



 

Next have the kids decorate them.

 



 

Some had more candy on them than others.

 

 

 

Winner of the heaviest cookie.

 

 

Us moms got into it too.

 



 

I think they turned out quite well.

 

 

 

We all had to pull out our mad piping skills.

 



 

My favorite part was how easy they were to make and we didn't have to worry about the houses breaking or what kind of icing to use to make them stick together.

 

The kids had fun and everyone ended up with a huge cookie to take home.

Definitely a fun night with some of my favorite people.