How To Make a Gingerbread House

Everything you need to know to build your edible dream house

decorated gingerbread house

The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

Prep: 5 hrs
Cook: 15 mins
Decorating Time: 3 hrs
Total: 8 hrs 15 mins
Yield: 1 gingerbread house

Making a gingerbread house for the holidays is super fun, but does require some planning and time. Getting your components ready over the course of a few days will make it much easier so the last day you can spend just assembling and decorating with your friends and family. Here I will outline everything you need and a step-by-step schedule to make sure your gingerbread house is executed as seamlessly and smoothly as possible!

Schedule

3 days before: Shop for all the ingredients.

2 days before: Make the dough and print/cut out pattern pieces.

1 day before: Bake the cookie pieces, and double check you have all the tools and decorations you need.

Day of: Make the royal icing, assemble, and decorate!

Tools and Equipment

  • Gingerbread house template, printed and cut out
  • Thin cardboard (such as from a cereal box) or poster board to transfer your pattern pieces and cut
  • 2 to 3 large baking sheets and parchment paper, cut to baking sheet size (approx. 13” x 18”)
  • Rolling pin
  • Freezer space to fit a baking sheet flat
  • Long chef’s knife to cut the cookie pieces
  • Tabletop mixer or hand mixer
  • Disposable piping bags and decorating tips
  • Small offset spatula
  • Silicone spatula
  • Rectangular cake board or platter on which you will build your gingerbread house

Ingredients

For the gingerbread dough:

  • 12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, at room temperature

  • 1 3/4 cups dark brown sugar

  • 2 large eggs

  • 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon molasses

  • 2 tablespoons water

  • 7 3/4 cups all purpose flour

  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon ground ginger

  • 2 teaspoons baking soda

  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves

  • 1 teaspoon fine salt

For the royal icing:

  • 3 cups powdered sugar

  • 2 large egg whites

  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice

  • 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

For assembly:

  • Assorted candies, cereals, pretzels, sprinkles, etc.

Steps to Make It

Make the Gingerbread Dough

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    ingredients to make gingerbread dough

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  2. Combine the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Paddle on low speed for approximately 10 seconds to combine then increase to medium speed and continue to paddle until smooth, light, and fluffy.

    gingerbread dough in a red stand mixer

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  3. Stir together the eggs, molasses, and water in a liquid cup measure with a fork until combined.

    molasses mixture in a cup

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  4. Turn the mixer off, scrape down the sides and turn it back on medium-low speed and drizzle in some of the liquid a little at a time until everything is fully incorporated and homogenous.

    gingerbread dough in a red stand mixer

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  5. Turn the mixer off, scrape down the sides, and add the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, cloves, and salt.

    flour added to gingerbread dough in stand mixer

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  6. Turn the mixer back on starting at low speed so the flour doesn’t explode in your face. Continue to mix until it forms a ball of dough.

    gingerbread dough in a stand mixer

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  7. Divide the dough in half then form into rectangles and wrap each one in plastic. Place them in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.

    gingerbread dough wrapped in plastic

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  8. Gather a baking sheet, several sheets of parchment paper, and a rolling pin.

    baking sheet, parchment paper and a wood rolling pin

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  9. Once the dough is chilled, place some of the dough in between two sheets of parchment paper and roll to ¼” thickness. Try to fill up as much space on the paper as possible so you can get more pieces out of it when ready. Repeat with the second piece of dough.

    rolled out gingerbread dough between sheets of parchment paper

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  10. Stack the rolled-out sheets of dough on a baking sheet and place in the freezer for at least 3 hours. If you are making the gingerbread house over several days as mentioned in the schedule above, leave it in the freezer overnight until the next day. Working with frozen sheets of dough will give you much cleaner and more precise cuts for your gingerbread house pieces.

    rolled out gingerbread dough between parchment paper

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  11. Gather your printed template pieces, transfer the designs to your pieces of cardboard or poster board, and recut. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

    paper cutouts of gingerbread house

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  12. Take one sheet of rolled dough out of the freezer and peel off one side of the parchment paper. Place the paper back on lightly, flip the dough over, and remove the other piece of parchment. Doing this will allow you to easily pick up your pieces and transfer them to the baking sheet for baking.

    rolled out sheet of gingerbread

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  13. Place your cardboard templates over the dough and use a chef’s knife to cut out the pieces.

    Note: You can either cut out window and door openings in the templates and the dough or use decorations to create windows and doors on the finished house.

    paper house templates on gingerbread dough

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  14. Transfer your pieces to parchment-lined baking sheets, making sure to leave one-inch of space in between each piece and bake the sheets for about 12-15 minutes or until the dough is set and dry to the touch.

    gingerbread house cutouts

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  15. Remove from the oven and place the baking sheets on top of wire racks or trivets to cool. Store the pieces flat on clean parchment-lined baking sheets and wrap the whole sheet in plastic wrap at room temperature until ready to assemble and decorate.

    baked gingerbread house cutouts

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

Make the Royal Icing

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    ingredients for royal icing

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  2. Combine the powdered sugar, egg whites, lemon juice, and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

    royal icing mixture in a glass bowl

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  3. Whisk everything together starting on low speed working up to high speed until the icing is stiff but still pipeable.

    royal icing in a bowl

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  4. Transfer some of the icing to a piping bag and cut a ¼” opening off the tip.

    royal icing in a piping bag

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  5. Keep the rest of the icing in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.

    royal icing in a bowl covered with plastic

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

Assemble and Decorate the House

  1. Gather all the cookie pieces, cake board or platter, piping bag with royal icing, and an elf assistant.

    ingredients to make a gingerbread house

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  2. With the help of your assistant, arrange the four wall pieces in the center of the board standing up to mark where the house will sit. Keeping each wall in its place, lay the pieces flat and outwards like the flaps of an open cardboard box, with the bottom corners touching. This should reveal a negative space rectangle that would be the “floor”. Use a pen to trace that rectangle.

    gingerbread cutouts laid out on a cutting board

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  3. Remove the wall pieces and pipe a thick line of icing over the traced rectangle onto the board.

    piped square of frosting on a cutting board

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  4. Place the front and side pieces over the piped royal icing and hold the walls in place while your elf helper pipes more icing in the seam where the two walls meet. Repeat the steps with the other sides and seal all the seams. Allow the walls of the house to dry for an hour before attaching the roof pieces.

    partially assembled gingerbread house

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  5. Pipe thick lines of icing on the top of the walls and attach the roof pieces. Then pipe another thick line in the seam of the rooftop. Allow the roof to dry for at least an hour before decorating. If you will be adding a lot of icing and heavy candies to the roof, let it dry for 3 hours before continuing.

    partially assembled gingerbread house

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  6. Once the structure of the house is set, decorate the gingerbread house as desired. At this point you can transfer more icing into prepared piping bags with decorative tips, and/or use a small offset spatula to spread icing on the roof to attach shingles. You can pipe shingles or use fun treats like thin wafer cookies, Chex squares, Frosted Mini Wheats (bonus because it already comes with powdered snow!), or gumdrops.

    partially decorated gingerbread house

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

  7. For windows you can pipe them in or use the square shaped pretzels. Feel free to add gel food coloring to the royal icing to pipe window shutters, wreaths, bows, and other decorations. A light dusting over the house with some powdered sugar through a fine mesh sieve adds a nice winter wonderland touch.

    Let the decorated house dry for at least 24 hours.

    decorated gingerbread house

    The Spruce Eats/Cara Cormack

Tips

  • Freezing the cookie dough into sheets before baking will make it easier to get precise cuts and also allows the dough to rest so the pieces will stay as close to the same size of the templates as possible.
  • Work quickly with your frozen dough; baking the pieces from a frozen state helps them retain their shape.
  • A lot of recipes say to use a pizza roller to cut the dough but this can result in crooked lines. Using a chef’s knife is better because the blade is straight and won’t wobble.
  • After the pieces are baked, if the edges are not completely straight you can use a serrated knife or microplane to gently shave some of the sides off. Just make sure all your opposing pieces are the same size.
  • If you break a piece, don’t worry. You can use the royal icing to glue it back together.
  • Attach the decorations while the icing is wet.
  • If your icing is too wet, you can add more powdered sugar a little at a time and re-whip. Likewise, if your icing is too dry, add water 1 teaspoon at a time until you’ve reached your desired consistency.
  • The stiffer the icing, the faster it will dry and bond.

How to Store

  • Keep the gingerbread house in a cool, dry place.
  • The gingerbread house is edible but we do not suggest eating it past 3 days of it being assembled. It will last as a decoration for about a month before it starts to go bad.

Make Ahead

The gingerbread dough can be rolled out, stacked between sheets of parchment paper on a sheet pan, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, and frozen for up to 3 months.