It’s been a minute, as they say! I’m back for Christmas, sharing my latest gingerbread house, inspired by the design on a storage box I found at Home Sense last year.

l was draw to the whimsical design, and kept many of the main elements, like the blue door, lattice work and candy canes, but added the green trees, peek-a-boo gingerbread men and wreaths. Funny enough, prior to finding this box, I had made a cookie version of the gingerbread man, which you can find here. The design is from My Cute Doodles on Etsy, I’ve linked to her in the tutorial there.

If you’re here for the video, I’ll post it right off the bat, but if you’d like some more details about this house, such as recipes, tools and templates used etc., read on below.

If you can’t see the video, click HERE.

Gingerbread and Icing Recipe & Template

You can find my gingerbread cookie recipe here and a video on how I make my gingerbread house royal icing here. (Recipe included there as well).

Printable Gingerbread House Template

Here is the gingerbread house template (minus the design details), to cut the gingerbread house pieces out, along with a video on assembling the gingerbread house.

Assembling the House Pieces

If you want to have detailed designs or flood work on the house, I recommend decorating the walls before assembly.

HERE IS THE VIDEO POST on assembling a gingerbread house.

Decorating the Walls – Flooding Pieces

Again, if you want to have detailed designs or flood work on the house, I recommend decorating the walls before assembly.

Cookie Decorating Basics

Here are some posts which take you through cookie decorating basics:

{Video} Cookie Decorating Tools & How to Fill a Piping Bag

{Video} How to Outline and Flood Cookies with Royal Icing

{Video} How to Dry Cookies Decorated with Royal Icing

Royal Icing

You can find my favorite cookie decorating royal icing recipe here. The consistency of icing is key for easy decorating. Click here to see a YouTube video on finding the right icing thickness.

Complete Guide to Royal Icing PDF

You can also find my Complete Guide to Royal Icing Consistency here.

Decorating Items

Basics of what you’ll need (These are Amazon affiliate links):

• Piping Tips –   PME #1.5,  PME tip 2.5, #32 Wilton, #18 Star Tip
• Piping Bags
• Couplers
• Americolor Gel Colors
• Scribe Tool or Toothpicks
• Mini Turntable
• Sanding Sugar
• Isomalt Powder
• Candy Cane Sticks

Sugar Work – Royal Icing Transfers – Trees, Shutters, Gingerbread Men, and Wreaths

The sugar work, or royal icing transfers, of the house, need to be done at least a few days in advance. If you have a dehydrator you won’t need as much time to let them dry.

For a post of the basics on how to do royal icing flood work, click HERE.

Candy Glass Windows

The windows are made of melted isomalt powder. Isomalt is a sugar substitute, a type of sugar alcohol used primarily for its sugar-like physical properties. It has little to no impact on blood sugar levels. Although it’s much better for your insulin levels, I should warn you that it may cause flatulence, so in such large quantities that I use for the windows, care should be taken to tell your gingerbread house recipients what the windows are made of. It is gorgeous though, and makes such beautiful, clear, candy “glass”.

To make the glass windows, first make sure your pieces of gingerbread are sitting on a stainless steel baking sheet. I melted 1/3 of a cup of isomalt powder at a time, in a glass measuring cup, in the microwave for 3 minutes. I did check it at 2.5 minutes and swirled the glass around to help mix the isomalt powder. Make sure to use oven mitts, the glass gets extremely hot! Another note to mention, I found that the powder melted more evenly in a larger glass measuring cup – my favorite was the 2 cup glass measuring cup.

Once the powder is mostly melted, swirl the glass around until the bubbles subside (about 15 seconds or so), and then pour into your window openings. The isomalt only takes minutes to completely harden.

Trees

The trees are made using ice cream cones, piping tip #32 or #18 and thick/stiff green royal icing. Start from the bottom and work your way up, piping “branches” of icing. Using a mini cookie turntable helps.

Assembling the Gingerbread House

HERE IS THE VIDEO POST on assembling a gingerbread house.

Icicles

To pipe the icicles, use tip #1.5 and thick white icing. Pipe downwards, almost like you were piping a line on a flat surface, then let go of the piping bag pressure and pull away.

Rotating Display

I thought it would be fun to have a rotating display to see all sides of the house. (Especially the peeking gingerbread men!). I found mine on Amazon HERE.

Are you making a gingerbread house this year? I’d love to hear about your gingerbread house experiences, or would love to see pics of your houses too, if you’d like to share links in the comment section below, or on Facebook etc.! You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube.

Have fun baking and decorating!

xo,

Marian