I am not sure if this should be posted here but here goes.,..

I need an icing recipe that works great for gingerbread houses. Prefereably one that does not use eggs.

What do you wonderful CC members suggest?

Hi, there are lots of Royal Icing recipes in the recipe section. I don't use fresh eggs. I use powdered egg whites.

Antonia 74's recipe, which uses meringue powder instead of eggs. It's a really great RI!

Wilton's is also good.

Do you mean completely eggless? I am not sure how you would make RI without eggs all together. If you are looking to just glue the house parts together you can use caramelized sugar, it will dry rock hard so it is a sturdy glue, but it is a bit of a messy technique plus it is easy to burn yourself on the hot sugar.

thanks for the hints. I thought it could be completely eggless (teach me to try and figure things like this out after midnight ) but I know it can't be.
I think the meringue powder recipes would probably work best, I was afraid of the amount of eggs needed since my sons teacher wants 25 batches of RI for 48 small houses.

If there is not dietary reason to avoid egg you could perhaps just get cartons of egg whites at supermarket to make all the RI. Good luck, sounds like a monster job.

I never even thought of using the egg white packs from the grocery stores. I will look into that as well.

If it's a cost issue, I would get a 40% off coupon for Joann's or Michael's and buy a big container of wilton meringue powder. Then all you need is powdered sugar. The meringue powder is cheaper than any powdered egg whites I have seen.

I too would use the 40% coupon for Joann's Michael's or Hobby Lobby for the meringue powder. Then make Antonia74's recipe & it makes 6 cups---that is a lot RI! Are they using it for "glue" or to decorate. How big are the houses? I would think if it's just to "glue" the houses that you wouldn't need so much. And 25 batches? Does she just mean 25 separate containers & 2 kids will share one container?

these are small graham cracker houses (one bottom, 4 walls, 3 roof). She figures that 2.5 cups would be plenty for 2 houses (both assembling and decorating).
I personally think that would be too much, the recipe she wanted to use makes 2.5 cups each batch and she figures she is going to need 25 batches.
She is picking up the Meringue powder and I will take a look at the Antonia 75 recipe.

2.5 cups to decorate two small gingerbread houses you can decorate a 3 tier cake with that much RI. She is going to be up to her knees in icing

She finally realized that I was right when I told her it was too much icing. Now I only have to make 10 batches at 2.5 cups each batch.