How to build a gingerbread house offers tips, tricks and advice on how to bake, assemble and decorate a gingerbread house for the holidays.

• The best Christmas craft projects are the edible ones, and none is more scrumptious than the traditional gingerbread house. Assembling a gingerbread house isn't as hard as it looks. A few gingerbread walls, some vanilla-flavored mortar and a dash of creativity, and you've got yourself a gingerbread dream home for the holidays.

• The walls of a gingerbread house are essentially cookies with some extra flour in the mix. The additional flour makes them sturdier than your average gingerbread man.

Step 3: Cut and Bake the Dough

• Now it's time to put those stencils to work, and if you have some seasonal cookie cutters lying around, you can make a tasty cookie or two out of the scraps.

• Mixer
• Pastry bag or plastic bag

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1. In the bowl of the mixer, whip together the egg whites with the cream of tartar until foamy.
2. Sprinkle in the sugar gradually. Add the lemon juice. Continue whipping.
3. Whip until icing is stiff. The stiffer the icing, the faster it will harden.
4. If you are ready to assemble your house, put the icing in a pastry bag. If you are still waiting for the walls to cool, save the icing in a tightly-sealed plastic bag.

• Mixer
• Pastry bag or plastic bag

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1. In the bowl of the mixer, whip together the sugar and meringue powder.
2. Add the vanilla extract and lemon juice.
3. Add the water. Beat for approximately 5 minutes or until stiff peaks begin to form.
4. If you are ready to assemble your house, put the icing in a pastry bag. If you are still waiting for the walls to cool, save the icing in a tightly-sealed plastic bag.

• Assembling your gingerbread house will take a couple of days because your walls need to be cemented before you slap the roof on top. So, be sure to give yourself enough time for the construction phase of your gingerbread home away from home.

• Gingerbread house walls and roof
• Royal icing in a pastry bag
• 1 stiff cardboard sheet for the foundation of your house
• Props to support the house during construction (ex. soup can, phone book, additional cardboard, glass of water, etc.)

1. Pipe a generous line of icing along the bottom of one of your side walls.
2. Stand the iced wall up on your cardboard foundation. Hold the wall upright, or set it against a soup can or glass of water to hold it up.
3. Pipe another line of icing along the bottom inside edge of the wall to reinforce it.
4. Repeat this process with all the walls. Be sure to put a generous line of icing wherever two walls meet.
5. Be sure that the walls are at right angles before the icing hardens. (A cereal box is a great way to check.)
6. Set the house aside overnight and allow the icing to harden. (This can take 4 to 12 hours depending on the consistency of your icing.)
7. Pipe one of your roof panels with a generous helping of icing.
8. Affix the panel to the house. Use a prop (such as a cup) to keep the panel from sliding down the side of the house.
9. Pipe around the roof panel's seams.
10. Allow the icing to harden for at least an hour before repeating the process with the second panel.
11. Allow the icing to harden for another 4 to 12 hours before decorating.

• The only rule to decorating your gingerbread house is that all the decorations be edible. Raid the candy aisle, and get creative. You can have cotton candy smoke coming out of your house's chimney, and gingerbread men throwing mini-marshmallows at each other's heads. The only limit is your imagination.