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Spiced Gingerbread House

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I first made this Spiced Gingerbread House in December of 2009. My baking skills were pretty basic and I had never tried building anything like house out of gingerbread. This was a couple of years after I started blogging and I was part of a then very well known group called the Daring Bakers. I was over thousands of members strong from all pars of the world. Some of us very expert bakers, some novices like me and the rest somewhere in between. The Daring Bakers were a knowledgeable and extremely supportive group of bakers. Unfortunately, like many good things, it came to an end.

 

One of the Daring Baker challenges, set by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi, was to bake and assemble a Spiced Gingerbread House. There were two different recipes to choose from and adapt to our heart’s content. I adapted the Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga) recipe from The Scandinavian Baking Book.  This recipe doesn’t require molasses and is egg free. Gingerbread recipes used for making houses tend to be more about sturdiness and texture than taste. I personally found this recipe good taste-wise too. It’s not too sweet which works with the amount of sugar that comes from the icing and candies used for decoration. The aroma of the spices is just delightful.

We don’t celebrate Christmas and I almost didn’t do this challenge. My daughter was excited at the idea of making a gingerbread house from scratch. My sister was down for a short stay, so we both decided to indulge the girl and make the gingerbread house. As it turned out, my sister and I were stuck with making and decorating most of it. The girl’s term exams were over, and she went off to celebrate the beginning of the holidays with a movie and a sleepover at her friend’s place!

Gingerbread was not a part of my growing up years except in my childhood story books. Though a sad story, Hansel and Gretel’s discovery of a a decorated edible house seemed  exciting. Imagine being able to snack on  a house decorated with sweets, cookies and chocolate whenever one wanted! A diet of no vegetables and just a lot of chocolate seemed perfect to my then 8 year old mind. Later, gingerbread brought back memories of reading the “Gingerbread Man” to my then toddler. She loved the story of how the gingerbread man would outwit everyone and not let them eat him. I never would finish the story because she didn’t want hear the sad part where the wily fox ate the gingerbread man.

I picked an easy template for the front and back walls (one with a door and round window cut out), two side walls and the roof. I drew them on a piece of cardboard and cut them out to size.

The Side Walls : Cut two rectangular pieces, each 5″ wide and 3″ high.

The Front and Back Walls : Cut two pieces 5.5″ wide and 6.5″ at the highest point and 3″ high from the bottom to the beginning of the slope upwards.  On the front wall, the door measures 2.5″ high and 1.5″ wide. The round window is 1.25″ in diameter.

The Roof : Cut two pieces each, 6″ wide and 6″ high.

Cut out other shapes like stars, candy canes, trees, gingerbread man and women, etc. as desired for decorating the house.

You can do this whole project over 3 days which makes things easier. Bake the spiced gingerbread on the first day. Store in airtight containers. Pipe and decorate the walls, roof, cookies on the second day. Allow them about half a day to dry. Stick together the roof panels and then the four walls as well with thick royal icing placing supports to help them stay in position. Let these dry overnight. Put the roof into place on the third day and do last minute decorating. Your Spiced Gingerbread House is ready.

Spiced Gingerbread House

An egg free spiced gingerbread house built with baked gingerbread and royal icing for the festive Christmas season.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 3 d
Cook Time 40 mins
Course Dessert
Cuisine global vegetarian
Servings 1 Gingerbread House

Ingredients
  

For the Gingerbread:

  • 200 gm unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups golden brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp Cinnamon
  • 4 tsp ground dried ginger
  • 3 tsp ground cloves
  • 2 tsp ground allspice
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • ½ cup boiling water

For the Royal Icing:

  • 1 large egg white
  • 3 cups powdered/ icing sugar
  • 1 tsp white vinegar or lime juice
  • 1 tsp vanilla or almond extract optional

Instructions
 

To make the Gingerbread Pieces and Cookies :

  • Cream together the butter and sugar until blended. Mix the cinnamon, ginger and cloves with the flour and add to the bowl.
  • Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Knead to make a stiff dough. If necessary add a little more water, a tablespoon at a time. Roll the rough out into two rounds and flatten each into a disc. Wrap with clingfilm and chill the dough for about 2 hours or overnight.
  • If chilling overnight, bring the dough to room temperature before working with it. In the meantime cut out the templates for the gingerbread house on cardboard.
  • Roll the dough out to about 1/8-inch thickness on a large, ungreased baking sheet. Place the patterns on the dough. Mark off and neatly cut the various pieces with a knife. Mark pieces like doors and windows but leave these pieces in place. They can be removed after baking if necessary. Carefully re-roll scraps and cut out shapes with cookie cutters to decorate the gingerbread house.
  • I rolled the dough thicker for the walls so they are structurally stronger, and thinner for the roof, trees and gingerbread people and other shapes.
  • Bake the cut outs at 190C (375F) for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm and edges just start turning golden. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.
  • Then decorate the roof, walls, cookies, etc before assembling the house.

For the Royal Icing :

  • Beat the egg white in a medium to large bowl till frothy but not stiff. Beat in remaining ingredients till smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency.
  • You will need reasonably thick icing the consistency of thick glue to stick the pieces together. Add a little more powdered sugar if necessary to get this consistency. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.
  • Thin some of the icing with a little water for piping consistency. Pipe and decorate all the pieces as required and allow to dry before assembling.
  • If you aren't using the icing all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit.

Assembling the Gingerbread House :

  • As mentioned earlier, pipe the icing and decorate all the pieces using whatever candy you want. Then assemble the pieces together. Start by joining the roof pieces together using thick royal icing and laying them on their side at the correct angle. Use glass bottles to support them so they do not fall. Let it dry well. Similarly put the walls together. Once this is done, place the walls on your base plate or board. Gently place the roof and glue with icing. Let it dry completely. Stick candies on the rib edge of the roof to hide the icing.

Notes

Useful Tips For This Challenge:
I found it easier to divide the dough into 2 (or 4) equal portions, flatten each portion into a disc and then wrap and refrigerate them.
I rolled out the pieces for the house (sides and roof) to 1/4" thick and the pieces for decorating into about 1/8" thick. This made the parts of the house sturdy enough to stand while the pieces that were used to decorate were thinner and looked nicer.
It is very important to check that your pieces of your house measure the same at the edges where they are to be joined together. So check this as soon as they come out of the oven, and trim to them to fit!
I found it easier to use disposable pastry bags (without the metal tips), as it kept the royal icing from drying out and whenever the bag tips got blocked with dry icing, I just needed to press them out to get the icing flowing smoothly.
While assembling, a use heavy object to lend support to the pieces being joined together till the royal icing dries. I used my spice jars. They were especially useful to provide support to the roof.
My cardamom jar (and other spice jars too) lends roof support!

This post was originally part of the Daring Bakers group challenge for December 2009. It has been updated with text and images.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. RJ Flamingo says

    I think you did a fabulous job! That gingerbread house looks adorable – I know I would never have dared it! 🙂

    Reply

  10. Y says

    That is such a gorgeous house! Funny that your daughter was the one who was excited about constructing a house to begin with, and didn’t even end up helping! (Ah, the 2-second attention spans of kids these days..;P) Your verdict is pretty spot on with what I found too, and I’m glad you had the opportunity to harness the ‘inner architect’ in you 🙂

    Reply

  12. Marcellina says

    Your gingerbread house does not reflect the fact that you have never made one before. In fact, this is one of the most professional looking house I have seen. Beautiful work!

    Reply

  19. Karen @ Citrus and Candy says

    Your house is amazing! The colours, the piping and the roof decorations – it’s so perfect 😀

    Reply

  22. zorra says

    It’s good you didn’t skip this challenge, otherwise we would never see your beautiful little gingerbread house! Well done!

    Reply

  26. Veena says

    Hi Aparna,Just got back home and first thing I did was to see how the house looked in your post!!! Looks wonderful and it sure was a lot of fun helping to put it together.Another ‘never done before’ beautifully conquered!

    Reply

  28. anjelikuh says

    wow, this is a beautiful house! love the decorations you made with the royal icing and all the different shapes you cut out.

    Reply

  29. Natashya KitchenPuppies says

    What a wonderful gingerbread house! I was thinking Hansel and Gretel as soon as I saw it too. Breathtaking. And I always have great luck with B.O.’s recipes too.

    Reply

  33. Trissa says

    Hi Aparna, I’ve heard the same thing about gingerbread houses – they are better to be looked at than eaten. Having said that, I am glad you found a recipe that you enjoyed doing both with! Your house looks so festive!

    Reply

  34. MeetaK says

    what a wonderful masterpiece aparna! this is a house to be cherished. i am so glad to see you did this challenge – sending you all my hugs!

    Reply

  36. bake in paris says

    Very colorful and beautiful little house you have there! It brings out the festive mood and joy :)Sawadee from Bangkok,Kris

    Reply

  37. PG says

    It looks so very beautiful! Thank you so much for the lovely New Year Wishes! A very Happy New Year 2010 to you and your family too!

    Reply

  39. Hannah says

    No. Way. Your house is -amazing-! Just the right balance of color and whimsy, while still being quite elegant overall. Very impressive work, Aparna. 🙂

    Reply

  40. kellypea says

    Glad to hear your dough didn’t give you trouble. I find that Beatrice’s recipes do work as well! Gorgeous cottage — love the shot of all the pieces decorated and ready to go. Excellent job!

    Reply

  44. Suzler says

    Beautiful job! I love the whole thing, but the roof tiles in particular caught my eye. It’s such a gorgeous design.All the best for 2010. 🙂

    Reply

  47. Coffee and Vanilla says

    What a beautiful house!! I love it!My daughter and I we made some biscuit house as well, but is not even half that impressive…Happy New Year!!Margot

    Reply

  52. Julia @Mélanger says

    Well done. Just a wonderful job. I agree about the flavour of Beatrice’s gingerbread. Not too sweet, but combined with the icing (and other sugary treats) just perfect!

    Reply

  54. Sunshinemom says

    What fun! I am sure you sisters remembered all the childhood ‘mami mami’ game:). The house looks so beautiful!

    Reply

  56. Anita says

    Daring Engineer – love it 🙂 Great looking house, and great you finally got to make and try it. I agree with it being disappointing to pull it apart after the effort.

    Reply

  58. Lisa says

    Aparna, one of the prettiest GB houses in this challenge! It looks like the ones you see in ads for Xmas! Besutifully done, but I’m not at all surprised with your talent! Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy New Year!

    Reply

  59. Bong Mom says

    What a pretty pretty GB House !!! I have never tasted one yet, though I have had GB man and none of them tasted as good as yours looksHave a great Year Ahead Aparna. Warm wishes for 2010

    Reply

  60. Suzana says

    Aparna, your house looks amazing! =D. I love the colourful decorations and the icing patterns.Best wishes for you and your family in 2010. Happy New Year!

    Reply

  61. Soma says

    How adorable!! Do you really have the heart to eat this ? 🙂 I would save this for ever.Happy New Year to you and your family Aparna.

    Reply

  62. Jacque says

    Oh my goodness, that is just completely adorable! I really love all of yoru decorations, especially the cookies on the side. Way to rise to the occasion.

    Reply

  64. fairy_mi says

    Wow, what a fabulous gingerbread house!Great shape, lovely decorations and beautiful colors-It truly is a Hanzel and Gretel house.Wtg for the fabulous job!Inbal(also a DB)

    Reply

  69. Avanika [YumsiliciousBakes] says

    Wow Aparna! You really outdid yourself. A great job. The house looks amazing. And I’ve never tasted gingerbread either, which is surprising, because I always wanted to make gingerbread men when I was younger!

    Reply

  71. Aparna says

    Thank you, thank you *bowing*.Had a lot of help on this one, and I think it was one of the “funnest” challenges I’ve done in a while.

    Reply

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