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Recipe by Jane Hornby

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1. Video tutorial: Piping techniques
2. Video tutorial: Making a piping bag
3. Video tutorial: Making a gingerbread house

1. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into a large bowl, then stir in the butter mixture to make a stiff dough. If it won't quite come together, add a tiny splash of water.
2. Cut out the template (see below to download). Put a sheet of baking paper on your work surface and roll about one quarter of the dough to the thickness of two £1 coins. Cut out one of the sections, then slide the gingerbread, still on its baking paper, onto a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, re-rolling the trimmings, until you have two side walls, a front and back wall and two roof panels. Any leftover dough can be cut into Christmas trees, if you like.
3. Pick out the most intact flaked almonds and gently poke them into the roof sections, pointy-end first, to look like roof tiles. Bake all the sections for 12 mins or until firm and just a little darker at the edges. Leave to cool for a few mins to firm up, then trim around the templates again to give clean, sharp edges. Leave to cool completely.
4. Put the egg whites in a large bowl, sift in the icing sugar, then stir to make a thick, smooth icing. Spoon into a piping bag with a medium nozzle. Pipe generous snakes of icing along the wall edges, one by one, to join the walls together. Use a small bowl to support the walls from the inside, then allow to dry, ideally for a few hours.
5. Once dry, remove the supports and fix the roof panels on. The angle is steep so you may need to hold these on firmly for a few mins until the icing starts to dry. Dry completely, ideally overnight. To decorate, pipe a little icing along the length of 20 mini chocolate fingers and stick these lengthways onto the side walls of the house. Use three, upright, for the door. Using the icing, stick sweets around the door and on the front of the house. To make the icicles, start with the nozzle at a 90-degree angle to the roof and squeeze out a pea-sized blob of icing. Keeping the pressure on, pull the nozzle down and then off - the icing will pull away, leaving a pointy trail. Repeat all around the front of the house. Cut the chocolate mini roll or dipped Flake on an angle, then fix with icing to make a chimney. Pipe a little icing around the top. If you've made gingerbread trees, decorate these now, too, topping each with a silver ball, if using. Dust the roof with icing sugar for a snowy effect. Lay a winding path of sweets, and fix gingerbread trees around and about using blobs of icing. Your gingerbread house will be edible for about a week but will last a lot longer.

Latest comments and suggestions

Results 21-40

• Puddles

  07 February 2008

  Puddles commented on this recipe

  Made this with my 2 boys before Christmas. Turned out brilliantly and this is the first time I've tried anything like this. I propped the sides up with boxes/jars while the icing set so that the didn't lean or collapse. i happened to have a Christmas tree cutter so I used 1 whole tree shape with a half tree stuck on the front and back with the icing. Looked great as a centrepiece on the table. Can't wait to do it again this Christmas!

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• Rhian

  08 February 2008

  Rhian commented on this recipe

  This really is easy! Way too much dough though which is just as well as I forgot to put almonds in one of the roof pieces and had to bake another one. I used mine to promote a production of "Hansel and Gretel" at the theatre where I work.

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• Jenny Wain

  09 March 2008

  Jenny Wain commented on this recipe

  Please can you email me the size/dimensions of the walls and roof as I am very excited to make the Gingerbread House.

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• mimi

  23 March 2008

  mimi commented on this recipe

  i made this for christmas and it was a joy to make and cook it was too beautiful to eat! deffiently will make this next christmas

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• DrFabio

  08 April 2008

  DrFabio rated and commented on this recipe

  

  I used the recipe to make gingerbread biscuits for people as Christmas presents, and decorated them with chocolate, and icing and silver balls. If anyone's thinking of doing the same, be warned - there's a lot of dough: I made 2 batches and ended up with about 100 biscuits! I couldn't even think about them by the end of the day without feeling a bit sick!

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• Kelvin

  01 June 2008

  Kelvin commented on this recipe

  Iknow it's strange but I don't like ginger in cakes, could I substitute cinnamon? or something else perhaps.

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• Erica

  22 October 2008

  Erica rated and commented on this recipe

  

  haha. gingerbread was lovely but me and my friend didnt pay attention to the recipe and didnt construct it properly. basically it fell apart and we ended up eating all the decorations and cutting the gingerbread up in little squares and putting them in the biscuit tin. we had fun anyway and it did taste good .. just didnt look THAT similar too the picture haha.

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• Jane

  20 November 2008

  Jane commented on this recipe

  I have made a house every year for the past 10 using various recipes. I'll do this oneagain this year using chocolate buttons rather than almonds. I also do the crushed sweets/window thing but with the addition of one of those wee sets of battery operated lights inside to make the whole thing glow. Just keep the battery box outside at the back then you can switch on/ off and replace batteries if necessary.

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• happycook

  21 November 2008

  happycook commented on this recipe

  really want to try this and give it as a gift but is it strong enough to withstand travel in a car? im afraid that it will just fall to pieces. thanks in advance!

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• heatherlump

  30 November 2008

  heatherlump commented on this recipe

  Going to make this for Christmas! Can't wait. How long will it stay fresh enough to eat??

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• LemonHead

  05 December 2008

  LemonHead commented on this recipe

  How long does it last untill you have to eat it?

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• Ann Anderson

  11 December 2008

  Ann Anderson commented on this recipe

  This was really straight forward to prepare & a great success. It went together a treat. I even cut a small window in the front panel & cooked with a boiled sweet, which melted to make a stained glass window. Really good result. I recommend making the icing in two batches 250g icing per egg white. I left the walls to set overnight before putting the roof on (with the 2nd batch of icing) & decorating. Gingerbread is not the tastiest to eat, but it looks great. Recommend.

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• Ann Anderson

  11 December 2008

  Ann Anderson commented on this recipe

  I forgot to add. I didn't use almonds for the roof. I cooked it plain & then used the icing to stick white choc buttons on instead. Looked really effective & obviously popular with the children. For ref people who are allergic to nuts are not necessarily allergic to almonds as really they are a fruit. Beware some people do have a specific allergy to almond though.

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• Hannah

  12 December 2008

  Hannah rated and commented on this recipe

  

  I made this with my stepson last christmas and he's asked to do it again this year! Much easier than I expected. We used some of the icing to pipe tiles onto the roof cos he doesn't like nuts!

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• vincent

  12 December 2008

  vincent rated and commented on this recipe

  

  i made this cake for my son's school with him, it was so much fun and messy will def make it again

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• Anne Ashford

  13 December 2008

  Anne Ashford commented on this recipe

  Am going to make this next week, I love gingerbread and think this will be a great project for the children and I to have fun before Christmas!

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• Robyn

  16 December 2008

  Robyn rated and commented on this recipe

  

  My gingerbread house is beautiful. The template is invaluable... although i would next time roll the dough a lot thinner... maybe to one £1 coin as the bread was heavy and my house fell down a couple of times almost inducing tears! I used Super Cook's white designer icing as suggested by Lucy... which was fine when i left each side of the roof over night. I did relent and then use melted (but cool) chocolate on one side, because it was a bit heavy. Looks fantastic... but i do have a better gingerbread recipe from Waitrose.

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• Jane

  17 December 2008

  Jane commented on this recipe

  Am I missing something? Just made the house having used the template given. I had loads of extra dough so made extra trees. About to assemble now and realize I dont have any side walls. Will have to make another quantity to finish.

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• Tallulah Rose

  21 December 2008

  Tallulah Rose rated and commented on this recipe

  

  Wow! my first time making one of these, it came out great. It did collapse 4 times though when i tred to put the roof on so i ended up propping the roof up with an eggcup! it dried nicely though. Ill be making these all year round!!!

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• willowthe bunnybbc

  22 January 2009

  willowthe bunnybbc commented on this recipe

  Lovely recipe works really well, do try it. Set my son off making it and he really enjoyed it, kitchen smelt georgeous. I upped the amount of ginger as we all like gingerbread and like a lot of people used chocolate buttons rather than nuts.

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Ingredients

FOR THE GINGERBREAD

• 250g unsalted butter
• 200g dark muscovado sugar
• 7 tbsp golden syrup
• 600g plain flour
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 4 tsp ground ginger

TO DECORATE

• 200g bag flaked almonds
• 2 egg whites
• 500g icing sugar , plus extra to dust
• 125g pack mini chocolate fingers
• generous selcetion sweets of your choice, choose your own colour theme
• 1 mini chocolate roll or a dipped chocolate flake
• few edible silver balls

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Difficulty and servings

Makes 1 house!

Preparation and cooking times

Ingredients

FOR THE GINGERBREAD

• 250g unsalted butter
• 200g dark muscovado sugar
• 7 tbsp golden syrup
• 600g plain flour
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 4 tsp ground ginger

TO DECORATE

• 200g bag flaked almonds
• 2 egg whites
• 500g icing sugar , plus extra to dust
• 125g pack mini chocolate fingers
• generous selcetion sweets of your choice, choose your own colour theme
• 1 mini chocolate roll or a dipped chocolate flake
• few edible silver balls

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