Making a full-fledged gingerbread house is fun, but it's also a lot of work for something that probably isn't going to be eaten. If you're entering your house into a contest that's one thing, but otherwise, why not make some that that's as enjoyable to eat as it is to look at? Four Weeks Magazine has a great how-to for making Gingerbread House Cupcake with Chocolate Ganache Filling. The cupcakes are baked up and then paired off. In each pair, one is carved into the "roof" and one is left as the base (scraps are eaten, of course!). Filling is added to the base, acting as a "glue" to hold the building together, then the little house can be decorated any way you see fit. If you have kids around the house at the holidays, decorating these is a great idea for them. And you can use chocolate cupcakes if they aren't fans of gingerbread.
I'd actually leave out the chocolate filling entirely, using icing as glue or swapping it for some vanilla cream filling instead, since ganache seems a little heavy for gingerbread, but the idea of the cake in general is a great one.[Thanks, Gabrielle!]
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