... while the royal icing is drying.

I have sandwiched the sides between soup cans. I just know there is an easier method. But the slanted roof, that's a trick to keep up!

Also, how thick do you roll the dough? My homemade ones I roll about 1/8 inch thick ... but the Wilton pre-made pieces are really thick!

I roll my dough between two dowel rods, so the pieces are quite thick. As far as holding the pieces up, i use a really thick royal and don't seem to have much of a problem with it. But if you just can't seem to get it to stay, try using some melted chocolate (candy melts) instead of the royal.

I was watching one of the Food Network Challenges and several people were using the canned air to dry the 'glue' for their pieces. Just an idea........

Curious about the canned air. I too saw them using it, and was wondering if it worked for "wet" glue. It seemed like they used the air to cool down "hot" glue (melted chocolate, melted sugar, etc) since the canned air comes out really cold. Will it work to dry out/set up royal icing too? That would be really handy.

Is that what that was. I never heard of it, but wondered what they were spraying on

When I make gingerbread houses, I use the cans to hold up the sides. Also, Having the royal icing really thick helps hold them.
Here's a link to baking 911 all about gingerbread houses
http://www.baking911.com/cookies/gingerbread_101.htm

Sandra

I just did a demo of a Wilton Gingerbread house at Jo Ann's today. The icing in the kit (which I used to promote Wilton products) was not as thick as it should have been. And of course I forgot to bring along extra powdered sugar. It was a bit of a trick to hold together while the icing was drying but it turned out great. If you buy the kit, put extra powdered sugar in the icing and mix longer than they tell you on the package. Regular Royal icing is beat for 7 minutes and this only called for mixing for 3 minutes. Not enough.