Gingerbread Houses

 It's the holiday season again, so I decided to make one of the most traditional and fun baked goods for this time of the year--Gingerbread houses! Gingerbread houses really make the house look more festive for the holidays, and they're a really fun project to make with friends!
To make gingerbread houses, all you need to do is make gingerbread cookies on a big sheet, cut out the layout of the house, and then use icing and candy to decorate to your heart's content.

For the cookies, you just mix the ingredients, chill the dough, and then roll it out into the shapes you want, then bake them in an oven at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes.

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup light molasses or dark corn syrup
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons water 

For the icing, I like to use a simple royal icing--it hardens nicely and is quite simple to make. Then, after baking and assembling the house, you can decorate it to your hearts content--or just eat it.