Christmas at the corners and we are nearing December. It calls for a celebration with cakes and cookies. All the bakery business will skyrocket their business during the whole month of December. Especially, the last week of December and the first week of Jan.
Are you planning to offer gingerbread house cakes to your customers? Even if you are an individual planning to make one for yourself? No matter why you want a gingerbread house template but we are here to provide you with the free template. We have also given many details about the gingerbread house cut out the pattern, kit, decorations, plans, ideas, recipes, blueprints and much more. All you need to do is read this article to sail through the end to end details about gingerbread house and also use these templates for free.
Let us start learning each topic in detail and address one at a time and understand the why, how and what.
Contents
Miniature Gingerbread House
Why do you need a mini gingerbread house? To make your daily coffee time interesting or sip your hot chocolate with a kick using a mini gingerbread house. Spend a great time with loved ones with different mini gingerbread house every time. Look at 66 best miniature gingerbread houses.
Try to make one with peppermint roof taking notes from Martha. You will feel great to make small gingerbread houses following her instructions.
For Christmas, you must definitely try the small house with a Christmas tree in front by following cake time recipe. Just use ½ kg flour and 200g honey to get your mini house ready.
Gingerbread House Blueprints
For becoming a victorious architect you need a blueprint. Building a house needs planning, and a blueprint to get the best results. Find the best blueprints to build your gingerbread house. However, let me give you a gist of what should you know about the blueprint. You need 2 gingerbread plank to make the roof. 4 planks for walls and 1 to make a chimney. Glue the planks together using icing sugar and use candies to decorate your house.
Gingerbread House Icing
The blueprint and plan is a must for building a house. But do you know? This gingerbread house requires icing to fix the planks and assemble the house to get into shape. These icing will act as glue to combine the roof, sides and base together.
So I am sure all you know that to make icing you need sugar (brown sugar) and butter. Whisk them together and add food coloring to get the desired color. You can add strawberry syrup for the pinky house, chocolate sauce added will give a brown gingerbread house and imagination is yours to get the color. The base ingredients are the three materials mentioned mixed in right consistency to get the icing ready. Just paint the icing on the gingerbread house as mortar to the usual building. At this juncture, you must know about the Royal icing and hence we have given a brief intro and recipe in detail to make a royal icing.
Royal Icing For Gingerbread House
First, know the secret ingredient that makes the icing royal. Yes, it is the egg white. Royal icing got its name because it covered the fruitcake and kept it soft for a long time. Like wedding functions, you can also make this icing to make your gingerbread house very soft.
Use pasteurized egg whites that are fresh and at room temperature. Do not over whip the whites as it will tend to break the house after drying. Take the piping in a pastry bag and you can fix the corners with the icing without much difficulty.
Use half a kilogram of sugar that is sifted from all dust. Make sure it is soft and add ½ cup of egg white. This you can get from 3 egg that is large in size. ½ a teaspoon of cream of tartar is also required.
Mix all the ingredients and add it to a mixer and them till they become thick in consistency. It will take at least 10 minutes to achieve this stage. Then transfer to a bowl and cover with a wrap so that the plastic wrap touches the cream without giving room for crust formation. Ensure safety in not letting the royal icing to dry out. In case you don’t achieve the consistency after blending for 10 mins you must add some sugar and beat well.
Royal Icing for Gingerbread house video.
Victorian Gingerbread House Template
You can take some diversion from the usual gingerbread house by using the Victorian house templates. This template you can download to your PC and print it on a paper. Keep this for reference and build a gingerbread house with your dough. Use this for measuring and shapes.
Tips to make your house look the best
- Use coconut scraped to give a realistic snow effect.
- Meltdown sugar and pour on the empty windows. It will cool to harden and look good.
- Make a hole in the front and that will give a lighting effect to the entry windows.
Halloween Gingerbread House
When you want to make a haunted Halloween gingerbread house for the kids, then you must take a look at this section that will provide you with ideas. You can take the base plan from food network and just follow them to make the creepiest haunted house.
My suggestions to give a Halloween scary effect are to draw skeletons using vanilla icing on the roofs that have chocolate icing. In the dark, this will look very terrific and that way your kids can celebrate a terrorizing Halloween. Likewise, draw emojis on gems and keep them as eyes to the doors and windows to give a terrible vampire welcome. Draw hands on the windows with fingers using a toothpick. Also, make gingerbread ghouls make this Halloween to all your kids a memorable one with the gingerbread house.
Top 9 Unique Gingerbread House Ideas/Tips
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Begin with the Recipe
The recipe is the base for making a solid gingerbread house and you need to make sure the kind of house you’re looking for. For a house which you want kids to eat after the display, you need to make a soft dough and a spongy house. Whereas for a contest to let your house stand sturdy for hours take a hard base and a strongest glue (icing). The recipe is the foundation of the house and you need to exercise caution and plan well before you start. Make a miniature with your ingredients when you want to make it in large scale.
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Take help from templates
You might have identified the best recipe and purchased the costliest ingredients searching across all online stores. But that will not suffice when you do not have templates or cut out patterns in hand. It is a must to use gingerbread house templates to get the shapes of your house in place. Use templates from this page and read through supporting links to back you with ideas and rules.
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Use Supporting Items
These may sound silly at the prima face, but a detailed analysis will help you realize the fact that all construction need support to stand till they get dry and harden. Even house construction uses beams to let their building stand. In brick houses, you can see bamboo sticks standing till the roof sets and hardens. Here you can use cans and cereal box to give support to your house after you assemble the templates with the dough and fix the icing as glue. Leave it undisturbed for one day and be happy that your house will stand strong.
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Know the Steps
The major task involved in building a gingerbread house is mixing the ingredients, cutting into shapes after rolling, baking, applying icing, and decorating. You must do each task at a time and do not work parallel as you think. For example at the time of baking do not get the icing ready as it will form a crust when there is a waiting time. You need to go step by step and do one at a time. Similarly, wait for one day after glueing and only then start the decoration.
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Patience is the key
As mentioned earlier wait with patience. You need not do anything unique but providing ample tile between steps will result is a unique house. Every step requires setting as you follow for constructing a real house. Do not overboard and that will only land in a mess.
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Lights on
Remember to place lights inside your house before you cover with the roof part. You cannot remove the roof once placed and your windows won’t look great without lights. So place the lights and then close the roof. Make your house unique by keeping lights of different color and brightness in different parts of your house. When the light glows in dark each part of the house will be highlighted in a beautiful manner.
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Decorate your own way
You need to make your house look different in this step. Be creative and decorate keeping a theme in mind. It will be good if the theme and the decorating items you choose are alike. When you choose an emerald city, then take all that is green in color to decorate the house and your gingerbread house will stand unique.
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Icing
Everyone thinks that icing is just for glueing the house together. But these are after cakes and no harm if you use more icing. They will not only make your cake tasty but also hold it in shape firmly. Apply more icing to the inner side and you can feel glad that won’t be noticed and the look of the house don’t get spoiled.
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One icing mistake to be avoided
Never start icing after the bake is over as the hotcakes will melt the icing and you cannot get the desired shape. Let it cool for 3 hours and then start the icing to assemble the parts in place.
Interesting Gingerbread House Ideas
Get inspired by these 13 weird, funny, and wonderful houses that have all its reason to be identified as the best gingerbread house way back in 2010 thanksgiving. Amongst these white house is also a model gingerbread house. Can you imagine the brain behind this creation?
Why do we call them interesting is because, these houses are just not having roof, base and sides but much more. They are really constructed as houses. But the ingredient behind them is the flour and sugar. Celebrate this Christmas with the best gingerbread house.
There is no dearth to ideas, read this page and use the different templates to construct an exclusive gingerbread house.
Gingerbread House Candy Ideas
All kids love the candies decorated on the gingerbread house. It is the candy that attracts the viewers. So let’s help you choose the best candy to decorate your house. First, know the different types of candy’s available in the market.
- Twizzlers
- Peppermint suckers
- Orange gummies
- Malt balls
- Gumballs
- Gobstoppers
- Fruit tootsie rolls
- Crushed root beer candies
- Chocolate Mints
- Cherry Gummies
- Bubblegum tape
You can also buy candy legos and place them as toys in the house. Take a look at this candy dressed gingerbread house to understand how you can place the candies listed above.
How To Make A Gingerbread House Template
This section will teach you in a simple way to make a gingerbread house template. You can make one in no time and get ready for a feast.
For making the template all you need is an A4 paper, scissors, ruler, and pencil. Yes, that’s all you need and all are available right now with you. Try to follow these steps and to make one now. You can feel glad about having a template on your own. Download the templates given hear when you need different patterns and decorations to be done on your gingerbread house.
Fold the A4 sheet into half and tear them. Keep one of the papers aside and mark the other one as a base with your pencil and keep it. Now pick the other side and fold it into half and tear it. Use one of the sides and further fold it into half and tear it and they both form the sides of the house. The other half must be folded into two and tear one half and fold it into two but do not tear and that becomes the rood of the house. Mark the papers in pencil as side1, side 2 and roof. You now have the base place the sides on the base and paste it. Then paste the roof on top of the sides. Your house is ready. The template given here has all measurements for the windows and other decorations which you can use for a fool-proof gingerbread house.
Make Your Own Gingerbread House
Making your own gingerbread house is no difficult and you can use the templates as a base for the shapes and prepare a gingerbread house cake. But remember the one you make for the decorative purpose will be harder than the one you prepare for eating. So these recipes are made for decoration, however, you can eat them if you prefer a hard cake over a soft one.
Let’s get started. Prepare the cake dough following the recipe and refrigerate overnight by wrapping in a cloth. In the morning take the dough out and let it sit for 10 mins at room temperature. In the meantime print, the gingerbread house templates in paper and paste them on cardboard, plywood or foamboard. The shapes are ready and are the dough.
Place the dough on the waxing paper and roll them using the dough roller and apply flour to prevent them from sticking. Make it thickness based on your need and now keep the cardboard shapes to cut them into the desired shapes for the door, base, roof, sides, windows, chimney etc.
Bake these pieces in an oven at 350o temperature. Allow it to cool and then you can start assembling. Use the icing to assemble them to make a house shape. Allow the assembly to sit for a day before you start decorating.
Now, the stage is yours and based on your imagination decorate them with all eatables like candies, gelly, gems etc to make a rocking gingerbread house.
For your motivation: The world’s largest gingerbread house is 15 pounds in weight prepared in the year 2006 kept for display in a mall in Minnesota, America.
Gingerbread House Plans
We have explained how to make a template and the gingerbread house recipe. But, when you want to make in large-scale planning is the first step. You must plan the size, shape, measurement, number of houses, the weight of the dough etc. Also, you need to plan the place for making the cake, how to cut them, the right environment to leave it as such before you start the decoration. You will have to leave it one day undisturbed before you start decorating. There is a need for proper planning to maintain hygiene while you make a gingerbread house in volume for business purpose.
But, don’t panic as we have made your job simple and listed the steps involved in planning a gingerbread house. Get going with this checklist and you can build a massive gingerbread house. These plans are made months before the actual preparation of the gingerbread house. So we have done the homework on your behalf and you can start anytime to make your house for display or sale.
- Plan for the size of the house and the number of rooms in your house. Once you know this you can choose a base accordingly.
- The base you’ve selected will have the respective sides, and roof so you need not to go in search of it.
- Decide the weight of the dough based on the size and you can get the flour to prepare the dough.
- Soon after the dough and the template is ready you can start making your cake and the baking process remains the same irrespective of the size of the cake. You need more people involved to handle the bigger size of the gingerbread
- Get them aligned once they are baked and now get the icing ready again depending on the size of the cake. Use them generously to paste them and construct a sturdy house.
- Leave it a day and start decorating.
- Get more recipe plans using this link to make a better gingerbread house every time.
Gingerbread House Patterns
There are different patterns in which you can make the gingerbread house. The basic one is the base, roof, and the sides. However, the window, door, chimney and other includes the pattern. You also have different size and shapes. The door can be a curved one, window with grills and without. Likewise, several patterns are there. Click on this link to get inspired by 25 different gingerbread house patterns.
If you make your own template, then you must be sure of the size and the respective measurements to give a look to the house. Alternatively, take these templates for free which will direct you with the correct size and the respective measurements.
Gingerbread House Cut Out Pattern
It’s time to get the patterns ready as this is an important step in making the gingerbread house. If you have the shapes in place, then you can make any number of cakes and in any size. You can use the cut out the pattern in cardboard and quickly place them on the rolled out dough and cut them to get them ready for assembling.
Gingerbread House Kit
There are several gingerbread makers offering kits for several years which are available on Amazon, Etsy, eBay etc. In this section, we would like to help you understand the DIY of a gingerbread house kit.
Take All-purpose flour, ground ginger, all spices ground, ground cloves, salt (a pinch), light corn syrup, dark brown sugar, vegetable shortening, confectioners’ sugar, and meringue powder.
Mix ingredients from flour till salt in a bowl. Then, place a medium pot over sim heat and combine sugar, corn syrup, and V shortening. Mix till sugar completely dissolves and all the shortening melts. Mix this to the dry mixture and mix with a wooden spatula till it becomes a dough in the right consistency. Allow it to cool for 20 minutes.
Take one portion of the dough from the four split parts and roll it by keeping on the parchment paper. Place this on a baking sheet and cover with a wrap to keep in the refrigerator for three hours.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and use the gingerbread house template to cut the shapes and place in the tray for baking. Bake till becomes firm maximum baking time 30 minutes.
After it cools place icing mix to form the structure.
Top 5 Gingerbread House Decorations
It adds fun to all of us to spend our vacation generating gingerbread house decoration ideas and executing them. You can also count yourself lucky to use these pre-assembled gingerbread house templates to decorate them following these top 5 ideas.
- Icing – Blend colors with the icing and that is the topmost decorating way to give a dashing look to your gingerbread house. You can highlight the different parts of the house using a different icing color. Beware, do not use chemical colors but only organic natural colors will help.
- Candy Dressing – Dressing with the M & M gems will let your kids fly in joy as they all love to have them replacing food. The decorating with the gems border will give a rich look to the frames of door and windows.
- Emerald City – This is a unique idea where you can use all kind of food like peas, candy, and sugar diamond candies green in color. They will give an emerald city look to your house. You can choose this name when you participate in a competition where you can name your house with a theme.
- Pulpy House – Use all the fruit pulps to decorate the house and start with mango pulp and strawberry to get a contrasting color
- Golden House – After covering the roof using icing, then you need to include gold stars. Use the white chocolates on the front of the house to arrest the dripping of icing. Finally complete by adding snow piles surrounding the house and give it a rocking wintery vibe.
Gingerbread House Decorating Ideas
We will give you some ideas to decorate the gingerbread house and also recommend the best 31 ways to decorate your gingerbread house. When you have time and manpower go through the link to try the one which you love the most. If you are ready for the challenge, then here you with the list.
The simple three decorating ideas which even your kid can do. All you need is some eatables that your kids love the most to eat and your gingerbread house ready for decoration. Take some wafers a mix of them in the plane form cylindrical and colored ones. Place the flat ones on the top to make the roof. Keep the cylindrical wafers to stand erect on all the sides. Keep small and colored wafers as windows and door.
Likewise, you can choose different nuts to decorate the house and that is the healthy version of the gingerbread house.
How To Decorate A Gingerbread House
Finally, before we wrap up, we would like to list down the points to help you decorate the gingerbread house.
The base construction is done with the dough and shapes cut using the templates. The structure is obtained by glueing the icing with the baked cakes. You got your house ready but wanna decorate them. Candy will the best choice to decorate your house and here you with the method involved in decorating your house.
Decorate roof with shreddies. Coconut stands the best choice for snow house. Then comes the top part of the bay windows for which you can use the almonds sliced into pieces. Next use chocolate wafers to decorate the steps. Walkaway gets a stylish look with the multi colored wafers that are broken into small pieces of different shapes. Place trees all around using small ice cream cones and green icing. Green jelly candies will make the shrubs. The light posts add a realistic view to your row house and use candy canes and jelly candies. Apply icing to fix them appropriately.
Where To Buy Gingerbread House
If you decide to go for purchasing the gingerbread house, then you must find the best online store to buy. Our recommendation for you is the Amazon store.
You can search for any Gingerbread product online on Amazon. However, we would like to share our views about Advanced Graphics Gingerbread House Life Size Cardboard Cutout Standup.
You can find the house kits also online. But let us describe the importance of the cardboard cutout. The specifications are given in the site and we would not want to explain them again. The best features of the cutout are as follows.
They can suit for any event including the festivals, corporate events, birthdays etc. This is not a cake but the inspiration forever to make a gingerbread house. With the advanced graphics, one can witness the minute arrangements to copy them when you use the templates to bake a cake on your own. This house will stand forever with you reminding you every year to prepare the best gingerbread house cake.
Gingerbread House Recipe
BBC food has the recipe to make the simplest Gingerbread house. We would like to throw light on how to make a gingerbread house with things available at home.
For making a simple gingerbread house with things available at home, you must make sure you have the following ingredients.
- Flour (All purpose flour)
- Sugar – White or brown sugar
- Molasses
- Ginger
- Clove
- Baking Soda
- Cinnamon
- Water
Mix all ingredients together and blend them well in a large bowl to avoid lumps. Then add water little by little to make the dough in the right consistency. Wrap and keep in the refrigerator overnight. Take it out and once it becomes soft in room temperature Roll the dough on parchment paper and decide on the thickness you desire. Finally, bake the cake from 6 to 30 mins at 350 degrees F. Allow the baked cake to cool.
Your gingerbread is ready to use. Take the icing to fix the structure and find the detailed tips to make the icing in the section given below. Allow one day after icing and then start decorating to your house.
You are now ready to make a gingerbread house and get ready for a rocking celebration.
