I made a large gingerbread house using construction grade gingerbread, came out rock hard, seemed very dry. I just made it into a log cabin with pretzels rods, used royal icing made with meringue powder. It has dried however the logs are coming off in a full sheet?? detaching from the sheet of gingerbread as I tried to assemble the house? any suggestions to make these pretzel logs adhere to the Gingerbread walls, the walls seem damp from the icing??
Humm. I have seen Pretzel Logs used before but have never actually tried using them so I can't speak from first hand experience here. I do have a couple of thoughts: Do these pretzel logs happen to have salt on them? If so, the salt may be dissolving and making things wet which would definitely degrade the holding power of the Royal Icing.
My other thought is that you may not have the right consistency for your Royal Icing. The icing should be really stiff and firm but not feel like its dry to the touch (if that makes any sense...I realize this probably sounds contradictory). If you find your Royal Icing seems too dry and items don't adhere to it, you can try using a fine spray bottle with water to slightly mist the surface before you stick things to. Timing is everything with Royal Icing since it dries out so quickly. Hope this helps.
Regards,
-Adam