Gingerbread Exchange Community

Hi   to keep from collapsing you must support each side or sides with any heavy food cans so as to keep them straight upright and let royal icing can dry fully overnight before putting on more pieces.  You should always use a metal bowl to make royal icing as plastic tends to hold oils and other stuff so as to have the best and hardest royal icing you can make. You must not disturb it in any way, until it has fully dried then it will bond and dry hard like candy.  Make sure you make your roof pieces thinner then sides so as to put less strain on structure.  Roof pieces may still be on the heavy side if you use royal icing to glue any shingles or roofing in place keep in mind the white icing (royal) make look nice as snow but can add weight to a roof so use with caution and limit it's weight.   good luck my house is under jimboy880 account here and please vote for me   thanks Jim

hot glue might be good but it may not hold as well as royal icing i guess but as I said in the previous reply you can glue it together with royal icing and hold it tight with cans put on inside and out of the side wall pieces so you don't have to hold them up and then no worries if you wanna eat or give it away and it can all be edible and i think just as sturdy and better but like I explained in previous email I must set undisturbed for royal icing to set overnight just a foot note depending on how much I glue together in actual sides and roofs it may take awhile this is not a one day project to glue it all and i suggest you take it slowly and you will get much better results patience is needed to do this craft and sometime I have to re make a pieces as it is too brittle or thin and is cracked or will crack.   When you roll out your gingerbread dough be careful not to create air bubbles as they will weaken and create cracks.  good luck 

Why is the house collapsing?  Because walls seams come apart, or wall/roof pieces bend/break/collapse?

If the gingerbread pieces themselves are collapsing, you might try frosting the the back sides of all the wall and roof pieces with Royal Icing before assembling the house.  This will add strength the gingerbread pieces. 

Then, before constructing the house, depending on your desired decorating, see if you can frost/decorate the front sides with Royal Icing prior to constructing.  This will also add strength to the pieces.

Depends if you are frosting the back sides of the pieces.  If yes, you can frost the backs as soon as the pieces are cool.  Then wait 24 hours for the pieces to fully dry (that have been frosted on the backside), then you can flip over and decorate the front sides, or begin construction.

Regardless.... after you construct the house, you must wait 24 hours for the wall/roof seems to dry.  If you do not wait for the constructed house to dry completely before you decorate, it will probably crash.

And... make sure you are assembling the house using Royal Icing.  Regular canned, or buttercream will not hold.  You must use Royal Icing.

Loreta