In Little House on the Prairie, Pa built the family a simple log house. He began by cutting down trees in the creek bottoms and hauling the logs home. Notches in the logs made it so each log set on top of one another without rolling off. Pa even built his own door and cut long slabs to cover the roof.
This log cabin craft is just one of 75 "Live Like Laura" activities in my new book The Laura Ingalls Wilder Companion: A Chapter-by-Chapter Guide. It's not just an activity book. It's full of historical information about pioneer living and the real Ingalls family.
Design and build your own edible log cabin. It won’t take as long as building a real log cabin, but it’s important to take your time. Use your imagination to create your log cabin. These directions will get you started.
What you need:
pretzel
rods (about 1 tub)
frosting
(about 2 cans)
graham
crackers (about 1 box)
platter
or tray or cardboard
icing bag
with small round tip, optional
square
cereal or crackers (like Rice Chex or Wheat Thins), optional
What to do:
1. Place
four pretzel rods on the tray to make a square.
2. Spread frosting on top of each pretzel log. (You can also anchor the log cabin to the tray with frosting.) This is the mortar that holds the house together. After placing a few “logs” in place, allow the frosting to set for about 15 minutes. Add graham cracker reinforcements to the interior of the walls (which won’t be seen).
3. Repeat placing pretzels and frosting until the walls are full height. Add more reinforcements as needed.
4. Add a door and windows using graham crackers. Attach them with frosting.
5. On the
sides of the house, build the walls to form peaks, using broken pretzels. Do
this by breaking pretzels to be slightly smaller than the one just placed on
the wall. Both sides of the house should use the same number of pretzel rods.
Allow the walls to dry overnight before adding the roof.
6. Build a roof using graham crackers as a base. Reinforce the underside of the roof with pretzel rods. Allow it to set for 15 minutes before attaching it to the house with frosting.
7. You
can add cereal squares or crackers to add “shingles” to the rooftop. Secure
everything in place with frosting.
8. For fun, add a chimney made with graham crackers or puffy cereal (to look like a stone chimney).
No
Frosting Bag? No Problem!
Without a frosting bag you can use a knife to spread the frosting. However, if you want to make an icing bag, it’s easy. Place the frosting in the corner of a baggie. Snip the corner off, but be sure not to cut off too much. Now you can make lines of frosting on the pretzel log cabin.
Happy Trails! ~ Annette
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