You’ve been sewing for many days now – so let’s try another craft! Like baking a gingerbread house!
These are a little time-consuming, but very fun, and they make a great centerpiece for your holiday buffet!
I’m not sure how we got started, but my kids have been baking and decorating gingerbread houses every Christmas since we can remember.
We have always used the gingerbread house recipe from this cookbook. In fact, this cookbook has some amazing recipes for tons of your favorite Christmas cookies like French lace cookies, chocolate/espresso/almond biscotti, sugar cookie cutouts, royal icing, and so many more.
The bonus to this recipe is that it also comes with a great template to use. We used it for years, but my kids always want to design their own, so that’s what we do now.
Start with flour, sugar, ginger and a lot of gooey molassas…
Mix it in the stand mixer – I believe it would break a hand mixer – and turn it out on parchment paper on the counter…
Massage it together by hand and form into a couple of flat disks to chill…
Design your templates. My kids like to draw their design out and then make the actual templates on graph paper. Here is a pdf template of Anna’s five-storey townhouse you can use as your pattern: gingerbread house template. This template makes a tall but petite house and you can probably get two out of the one recipe if you roll it slightly thinner than 1/4″ that the recipe tells you.
Cut your house out according to your template and bake.
While your pieces are baking, make your cement icing according to the directions in the cookbook. Let your pieces cool for about a half hour and then you can start assembling your house! We used cans of pumpkin and soup to hold our house up while the icing dried. Christopher’s (and my husband’s) house was quite an architectural undertaking so it took a bit for them to build.
Anna was done in a jiffy! Construction selfie!
And here are the completed works of art! We had a party last night and they were perfect for the centerpiece! I bought a few pedestals in different heights and doilys from Crate & Barrel to elevate them. The tree candles are also from Crate & Barrel.
It’s nice to take a few days to make these and really enjoy the process. This is especially true if you’re making these with kids. So take your time and have fun!