Ho Ho Holiday Baking

Recently my neighbor had the kids over to make gingerbread houses. They turned out so cute and she shared some great tips with me, so I thought I would share them with you!
First, instead of baking actual gingerbread, she makes sugar cookie dough and dyes it brown (because its easier to work with and the kids like it a lot more). Then she bakes it for a minute longer than a regular sugar cookie (so its not so soft and will be a sturdier building material). HERE is the recipe she uses for the sugar cookie dough.
Get creative with your decorations. Waffle pretzels make great windows and fences. Use lifesavers as wreaths. Make a marshmallow snowman in the yard. Do you have any ideas?
And if you just have too much to do already and don't have time to be baking in the kitchen-don't forget about the graham cracker gingerbread house. They are just as fun to make and its much easier on you. Just use a serrated knife to saw through the crackers and then design and build your structure.
A word about icing-You need to use royal icing so it will harden and luckily it is so simple to make. A lot of recipes say to use egg whites and I always get nervous about the raw egg thing, so I use meringue powder (found at Michaels with the cake deco stuff). Its still made from egg whites but it has been processed. Just mix 5 Tbl meringue powder and 5 cups powdered sugar. Slowly add 1/2 c. of water and mix until smooth. So easy!
You can pipe the frosting out of a decorating bag, or cut the corner off a ziplock, or get these awesome bottles (also from Michaels). This year I also used the bottles to decorate cookies with the kids and it was GREAT!!! Not nearly as messy and they could be more creative with them. (You might want to make the icing a little runnier so the kids can squeeze it out easily-use only 4 cups of powdered sugar)

And a tip for sugar cookies-Always watch them very closely while baking the first few batches, until you get the timing down. Do not let the bottoms brown like I did on a few batches. It really is so disappointing to have spent all that time rolling and cutting out!

Now I have a question for you. Does anyone know how to make frosting in bold colors? Red is always pink and everything else is pastel. Do I need to use something other than traditional food coloring?

Please comment and share any holiday baking tips you might have.