When we wrote about homemade gingerbread houses this morning, we hadn't yet spotted these. But this is the short-cut version we were talking about—graham crackers propped up with royal icing rather than from-scratch sheet cookies. And they are even easier to make than the milk carton houses we used to do (plus, the chocolate grahams for a Tudor-style roof are just genius). More info below...
Martha's instructions don't even call for milk cartons to create the shape. You simply use a spice jar to keep the graham crackers from falling over while you ice them into place. And while we know kids love all the bright colored candies used to decorate (and, of course, snack on), these "cookie cottages" are a little more rustic and natural looking. One has frosted wheat cereal as snow-covered roof shingles. And do you see the "logs" piled up next to the Tudor cottage? Little pirouline rolls- too cute.
- Get the instructions: Cookie Cottages How-To, from Martha Stewart Living
Related: Bears, Gingerbread, and Igloos: New Holiday Cake Pans from Williams-Sonoma
(Images: MarthaStewart.com)
10 Picnic-Ready Salads to Eat Outside
Recipe: Thai Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Red-and-Pink-Stripe...
Things Fall Apart: Living Alone in a Space After a Breakup
TVG LA's Massive Creative Hub
Those are really cute (but it's Martha, of course they're cute).
Hmmm, depending on how much extra time I have this Christmas I may just go the graham cracker route. But graham crackers don't smell as good as gingerbread does (and half the fun of the gingerbread house is that classic gingerbread smell mixed with the scent of royal icing and stale candy. It just smells like childhood to me).
Also, I've made these before and I've always had problems with the crackers snapping in the middle of the project. And cutting the neat little peaks out of the graham crackers is actually kind of hard, because they shatter!
moderndomestic, use a serrated knife to cut the graham crackers into the shape you want. Do not press hard, just let the knife sliding do the work.