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You’ll also need an electric mixer for the royal icing. This is where it really helps to have more than two hands working on a house, and why making a gingerbread house is so much more fun with company than alone. Pipe royal icing to make decorative designs around the walls of the house and roof. Use royal icing to "glue" pieces of candy to the house. I gathered a few links for you to use as decorating inspiration. There are so many beautiful (and SIMPLE) decorated gingerbread houses out there.
Triple Chocolate Cake (Popular Recipe!)
There will be an overhang off the side of the wall. The gingerbread should just start to darken at the edges, and then you know it’s done. OR, you have the option of removing the scrap dough, and baking just the shapes you need (Image 27).
See Your Gingerbread Houses!
However, this dough may need a little extra flour to get the same consistency, if the vegan butter is softer than regular butter. I love to use candy to decorate the house and make it colorful. Also pipe royal icing along the middle to join the two parts of the roof. Step 15 – Using a paddle beater, or a hand mixer, add the confectioner’s sugar to the meringue base and mix.
Easter Egg Buttercream Candies
Carnival for Good celebrates community’s support of Gingerbread House - KTALnews.com
Carnival for Good celebrates community’s support of Gingerbread House.
Posted: Fri, 19 Apr 2024 14:18:22 GMT [source]
I don’t like licorice, so I don’t use it, but it can be used to decorate the house. Larger candy bars might be harder to incorporate, but you can use fun size candy bars for your house too. Finish off your house design with some landscaping. Decorate happy little gingerbread people to complete the scene. You can use leftover royal icing to pipe small details or follow this step-by-step guide of basic decorating techniques for extra-festive gingerbread folks. In a moment of wine-fuelled festivity, I offered to host a gingerbread house decorating party for friends.
Impressive confections take on 'Iconic New York' with gingerbread house competition at Museum of the City of New York - WABC-TV
Impressive confections take on 'Iconic New York' with gingerbread house competition at Museum of the City of New York.
Posted: Wed, 08 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Before you begin, find a base to put the house on. Your gingerbread house will be 5-1/2 inches wide and 6-1/2 inches long. You can use a cardboard cake board, a serving tray, or just cut a foam board from the dollar store.
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing in between. This will ensure that the eggs mix in properly. Next, add the sugar, and cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is creamy (Images 4 and 5). Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl so that the butter and sugar mix well.
Stretched over a few winter evenings or a weekend, it’s a festive effort — especially with a group. Dahn is a retired nurse, recipe creator, home cook, baker, and self-proclaimed foodie. She loves creating in the kitchen and cooking for family and friends. She lives in Washington State with her husband and dog. When she isn't cooking or baking, you can usually find her spending time with her grandchildren or exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Send us a picture of your gingerbread house and we will add it to our gallery below.

Starting Your Homemade Gingerbread House
For the icing, a stand or hand mixer is necessary to get the right texture to hold the house together. The icing is ready when it is smooth, glossy, and holds a stiff peak. Transfer the icing into piping bags and tightly cover any excess for later use — it dries out easily.
You can even do this the day before, to save time. But if you do love a sweet gingerbread cookie, then decorating the cookie with royal icing will add that extra layer of sweetness to it. A tried-and-true Easy Gingerbread House recipe with a gingerbread house template and tips on how to construct and decorate it. Leave a small (2cm is fine) border around the scores edges 4. Doing this method is better than cutting the dough to the exact template as you will prevent the edges from spreading.
If you’re decorating with kids, it helps to assemble the houses the day before, so they are fully stable and ready to pile on the candy. You are making a cookie dough, so you will need the basic pantry items. You will also need molasses to make these gingerbread houses, which you should be able to find in the baking aisle of your grocery store. Don’t forget to pick up the meringue powder as well, you will need it to get your icing nice and firm!
You can glue the pieces back together using the icing. Make sure the icing sets completely before you finish constructing the house. We don’t recommend using a silicone mat for this project. When you are cutting the gingerbread house templates, you may accidentally cut your mat and ruin it.
You can also wrap the dough in plastic wrap. I like to keep it as a square so that it’ll be easier to roll out later (Image 15). Do not knead the dough – the way you would with bread dough. Instead, simply fold the dough over itself a few times. The dough might be fairly sticky, so use the remaining flour to flour the dough and your work surface (Image 12).
Use your cookie cutters to make different shapes that you can also stick on or in front of your gingerbread house. Here, I used royal icing that was piped on top of each other to create 3D structures like these windowsill “baskets” and filled them with sprinkles. I piped 3D flower beds for the front of the house, and filled them with sprinkles too (can you tell that I love sprinkles?). My advice is to find a cooler part of your home and allow the icing to harden there. To speed things up, use a hair dryer on its cool setting and on high speed and use the cool air to dry out the royal icing.
Alyssa Rivers is the author of 'The Tried and True Cookbook', a professional food photographer and experienced recipe-developer. Having a passion for cooking, her tried and true recipes have been featured on Good Morning America, Today Food, Buzzfeed and more. All the house and chimney templates will fit on one 20” x 15” sheet pan. You can use 2 smaller 13” x 9” pans if you do not have a large sheet pan.
You can find exact measurements below in the recipe card. Some of my favorite memories around Christmastime are making homemade gingerbread houses with my Mom. We loved shopping for all of the fun candy we wanted to decorate with and we’d usually pick a friend, neighbor or special teacher to make one for. 😊 Just make sure the gingerbread, frosting, and candy are properly handled with clean hands, and the house was covered while being completed. It’s also crucial to use meringue powder to make royal icing.