Gingerbread house

Get the whole family in the kitchen to start a new Christmas tradition while creating some magical memories. Decorating our gingerbread house is great fun and easy enough for kids of all ages.

  • Prep Time

    2.5-3 Hours
  • Cook Time

    15 Minutes
  • Makes

    1 House

Ingredients

 for the house

  • 250g butter
  • 200g dark brown sugar
  • 4 tablespoons golden syrup
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 650g plain flour
  • 2 teaspoons bi-carb soda
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 2 teaspoons mixed spice
  • 16 hard boiled coloured lollies for windows more than one maybe needed for each window

for the royal icing

  • 700g pure icing sugar, sifted
  • 1 egg white, lightly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla essence

for the decorations

  • Assorted bright coloured lollies or sweets

You'll Need

  • Multix Bake
  • Multix Piping Bags
  • A large rectangular cake board

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line two large baking trays with Multix Bake. Download and cut out all the pieces from the Multix gingerbread house template. Click here to download our easy gingerbread house template
  2. Melt the butter, brown sugar, golden syrup and honey together in small saucepan over a low heat, stirring until sugar has fully dissolved. Remove from heat and cool 2 -3 minutes. Sift together the flour, bi-carb, ginger and mixed spice into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the cooled butter & sugar mixture. Mix together to form a soft dough. (If dough is a little too soft add a little extra flour)
  3. Turn dough onto a board covered with Multix Baking paper sprinkle with a little flour. Knead dough 2 minutes to form a soft ball. Divide dough into 3 equal sized pieces. Place each piece between 2 slices of Multix Bake and use a rolling pin to roll out evenly to a 5mm thickness. Remove the top layer of Multix Bake and place the cut outs of the downloaded Multix gingerbread house template on to the dough. Using the templates as a guide, cut out the dough using a sharp knife. Remove the templates. Remember to cut 2 roof sections and 2 side walls, and the door (you need 7 pieces in all). Cut round the bake under each piece and use the bake to support the soft dough pieces as you lift and transfer them to the lined trays. Place the hard lollies into the window cavities of the side and front walls on the baking paper. (note: if your hard lollies are smaller than the ones we use in the video use 2 in each window)
  4. Bake the gingerbread for 8-10 minutes until gingerbread is golden and lollies have melted to fill windows. Remove Gingerbread from the oven and cool on the trays for about 10 minutes before transferring the pieces onto wire racks to cool completely overnight. (It is important that the gingerbread cools and hardens totally before you try to assemble it or your house will collapse)
  5. First make the royal icing, sift the pure icing sugar into a large mixing bowl, add the egg white, vinegar and vanilla essence to icing sugar and whisk into a smooth icing. Place pre-prepared icing into the Multix Piping Bag, with a round nozzle and cover with cling until required.

for the walls

  1. Pipe a line of icing along the base of the back wall of the house and place icing side down, to one end of the board lean it against a heavy glass to hold it upright. Piping icing on inside of the side wall on three sides, press it gently against the back wall and cake board icing side down and lean it against another glass. Repeat with the other two walls until you have all the walls stuck together with icing and leaning on glasses. Attach the door with the icing and allow the walls to dry.

for the roof 

  1. While the walls dry, decorate the roof pieces with icing and lollies or silver balls and allow to dry. Only when the walls and roof decorations are totally dry should you attach the roof to your house. While your waiting for the roof and walls to set wrap your piping bag in cling film to stop the remaining icing setting. Carefully pipe icing along the two roof joins and top of the walls to stick them together. If the roof slides place two paper cups under each side to allow the roof to set. Once the house is dry and stable, decorate the house with more icing and lollies.

Tip: Don’t waste any leftover dough, re-roll it to make decorative stars or gingerbread men to go onto the board or to hang on the Xmas tree.