Building a gingerbread house is a wonderful activity to do with your family or friends during the festive season. This gingerbread house recipe is completely from scratch – all the way from baking the biscuits to assembling and decorating the house.

And you don’t have to wait until Christmas day to break it apart and dig in – Just make sure to take a photo of your hard work first! Scroll down to watch the video of me decorating and assembling the house so you can follow the steps and do it in your own style.

How to Build a Gingerbread House from Scratch

Gingerbread House Cutter Template (Click HERE to download to scale)

As always, let me know if you make it, I’d love to see!

Happy indulging,

Kim x

For more Christmas recipes, click here.

Gingerbread House Recipe From Scratch

Building a gingerbread house from scratch is a wonderful activity to do with your family or friends during the festive season.

Prep + Chill Time 1 hour

Cook Time 20 minutes

Décor + Assembling Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 50 minutes

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

1 cup butter, room temp
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup soft light brown sugar
1/2 cup black treacle/molasses
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 medium eggs, room temp

Dry Ingredients

5 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup cornflour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsps ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Royal Icing

3 cups royal icing sugar, sifted(!)
8 - 9 tbsp milk of choice (add slowly)
1 tsp pure almond extract

Instructions

Use a hand-held whisk to cream the butter and sugars or do it by hand. Add the treacle, vanilla and eggs and whisk. Sift in the dry ingredients and stir until it turns into a dough, kneading slightly by hand if necessary. Divide into 4 flat discs and cover in clingfilm. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 170°c. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and start rolling the doughs separately to different sizes as per the next step. For the gingerbread house, we will be baking several rectangles and then cutting the shapes after baking to ensure correct sizes and no spread.
Lightly flour a piece of parchment paper, place 1 of the 4 doughs on it and dust some more flour on top. Cover with another piece of parchment paper and roll out the dough to approx. 1.5cm thickness, 12cm height x 22cm width (this is for the front and back of the house + the chimney which is 2 of the same shape glued together).
Repeat the steps for the sides (14cm width x 8cm height), the roof (10cm height x 16cm width), and the base (12cm width x 14cm length). Transfer the doughs along with the base parchment paper onto the baking sheet/s and bake separately for around 15 minutes each.
Cut the shapes needed into each respective biscuit (The scale template is in the blog post). Then, pop back into the oven for around 5 minutes since they need to be sturdy to assemble - Keeping in mind that they will harden more once they cool. The base might need closer to 8 minutes for a strong result.
Let cool completely on a cooling rack before decorating. If decorating the next day or later, store in an airtight container in a cool dry place so they stay crispy.
Mix the royal icing ingredients together (the milk a little at a time) until you reach a thick consistency. Adjust ingredients as necessary if too thick/runny. Transfer to a piping bag, snip off the tip keeping it small enough for details and decorate all the sides. Let dry and harden completely for at least 1 hour before assembling.
Snip off a little more of the tip from the piping bag to coat the sides and corners of the house and glue everything together. Add more royal icing to look like snow to fill in any gaps. Lightly sprinkle some icing sugar on top of the assembled house to look like snow.
Make sure to take a few photos before breaking the house and digging in. Enjoy!

Notes

Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 2 weeks.

Tip: The icing consistency should be flowing just enough to pipe it with a small amount of pressure but it shouldn't be runny. Test a line on a piece of parchment to see if it holds its shape.

Note: It's ok to scrape off any decorations that you don't like and start again - Just remember to have fun with it!