Sugar 'Igloo'

Last week Kid 1 (age 4) came home from preschool with a really cool project to finish at home.  The started making igloos out of sugar cubes and royal icing, and my son the builder, was really into the project.  We do a lot of building at my house, with lego, Lincoln logs, and other materials, and this was right up his alley.

He got a few rows up, and then needed some help.  I kept going long after he had given up, and I hoped that I would be able to create a rounded top.  It didn't work out, so I ended up with more of a teepee than anything else, but it was still fun for all of us.

I think this would be a great winter activity to keep little (and big) hands busy in the long a dreary months of January and February.  And cheap too, since sugar cubes are inexpensive and it's easy to make a batch of super strong royal icing.

Now that I'm looking at my pictures, it just occurred to me that you could use something like a balloon or a crumpled up ball of foil to stuff inside the igloo that would support the dome while your icing is hardening.  If you try this, please let me know if this works.  We still have a lot of winter ahead of us (in fact, it hardly feels like it has begun), and we would all be up for a repeat.