Gingerbread House -Xmas Activity for Kids

We are new to making gingerbread house s in our family. It’s actually a little less than a year ago, that I made it for the first time for my daughter’s Snow-White party. I wanted to make the dwarves house and decided to try it out. It wasn’t the smartest decision at the time (last minute decision that it was) but it turned out to be a real hit with everyone at the party and a beautiful centerpiece for the table.

We have made them alone or when friends have come over several times since, so I now have all the do’s and don’ts to share with you all. And I can vouch for the fact that practice makes perfect (or at least a lot better) 😉

The ingredients for making a Gingerbread House at home

The dough:

I use this Danish gingerbread recipe to make the dough. It works just as well eggless as it does with the egg, so whether you are vegetarian or not, it’s a great recipe for gingerbread houses. Please see my suggestions in the recipe for making it eggless without changing the texture or flavour. If you are using your own tried and tested recipe make sure it doesn’t contain a lot of rising agents or liquids as you want each piece to remain the same size as before cooking. This gingerbread recipe only has a quarter of a teaspoon of baking powder so the dough doesn’t rise very much and therefore all the pieces of the house fit together afterwards too.

The icing:

Apart from a good, strong and tasty dough, you will also need icing. In my experience it’s easier to use the simplest and easiest kind; just water and icing sugar. In the picture on top, we have used that. It’s easy to handle and requires less ingredients. We have used this easy icing recipe for the borders too. It dries quickly and you can assemble the house fairly quickly without destroying all your hard work. I have given the details below in the steps.

Tips for making a Gingerbread House with kids

If you are making gingerbread houses with smaller kids (8-9 years and below) I recommend putting the icing into squeezy bottles so it’s easier for them to handle. It also means that it’s impossible to make really thin lines, but in my experience, they want LOTS of icing anyway. The icing bags can be a bit tricky to handle with smaller hands but they are perfect for adults and bigger kids. My 11-year old made the house on the right and I made the one on the left (on the feature picture above) and we both used icing bags. My younger kids both preferred the squeezy bottles and got frustrated when “nothing” came out of the piping bags.

You can also make homemade candy canes for the decoration. See how here.

Free templates to make it easier for you

You can use my easy-print-and-cut templates for the Large Gingerbread House and Small Gingerbread House. Just click on the link to download and print. Remember to cut doors and windows before baking if you want those. I used a clubs cookie cutter and a circle cookie cutter to make the windows that you can see on the picture above. We made the trees out of marshmallows and green petal dust from our flower party (It’s amazing what I have kept from parties that can later find use again)

The houses below and above are made by my daughters. A LOT of icing and smarties on that big one, but it’s not always about presentation and more about having fun with it. 🙂

Here you can see the difference between the large and the small gingerbread house. You can also see that they have been made by using squeezy bottles instead of piping bags.

How to assemble the Gingerbread Houses

To assemble the house, you can either use icing or hot sugar. I have tried both and shown both in the steps below. They both have some positives and negatives.

To assemble a Gingerbread House using icing sugar:

• requires patience and an icing mixture that dries quickly (It usually works though)
• will leave white lines around every border.
• tastes good afterwards
• isn’t as strong as when assembled with hot sugar

To assemble the Gingerbread House using hot sugar:

• is quick as the sugar dries super fast
• will not easily break again
• doesn’t taste as good afterwards
• is riskier as the sugar is super hot and can burn your skin

Yield with one portion of Danish Gingerbread Dough: 2 large or 4 small gingerbread houses