No electric mixer, any other recipes for gingerbread house glue?

After all that whisking, I have decided that it was worth it. This icing was exactly like I imagine icing should taste and a lot better glue than last year's icing sugar and water. In fact, unlike icing sugar and water, this royal icing is actually white!

So, was it worth almost an hour of whisking? Giving that it's only once a year, I think it was. But I won't know until tonight when the kids arrive and they get to decorate. That's always fun to watch, and 'fun' to clean up.

Use a hot glue gun for the actual glue and then cover it with piped store bought frosting.

41 minutes of beating the icing with a fork she puts down her bowl and wonders, "what am I doing? This is crazy." With the hand that isn't shaking from exertion, she pours a glass of wine, takes a sip, picks up icing bowl and returns to whisking. (with a quick break in there to type this, of course)

For future reference, whisking the egg whites by hand was the easy part, whisking the icing till super-stiff by hand, is not. This had better be the bestest darn icing ever.

Lemon curd!

Custard!

Whisking with a fork really isn't too bad, it should take about 6-8 minutes.