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.

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.

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.