Gingerbread Recipe
Step 1
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6.
Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan.
Step 2
Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a large bowl, then stir in the butter mixture to make a stiff dough.
If it’s not quite holding together, add a little water.
Step 3
Roll out the dough to the thickness of about two pound coins.
Using the straight rectangle cutter, cut two side walls.
Place onto a baking tray lined with paper.
Step 4
Roll the dough again to the thickness of a one pound coin.
Cut out two of the scalloped roof pieces – trim both by 2cm along the straight edge and one by another 2cm, so that one is shorter than the other.
Place onto the tray.
Step 5
Cut two house fronts from the dough using the simple side of the decorative cutter.
Remove the heart to leave an aperture.
Flip the cutter over and line up the heart over the cut piece. Press down firmly to emboss the design into the dough.
Place on the tray and bake for 7-9 mins.
Tip - Crumble coloured hard boiled sweets (such as Jolly Ranchers or Fox’s Glacier fruit sweets) inside the cut out window shapes to get a stained-glass window effect.
Step 6
Remove from the oven.
Before they’re cool, trim the edges with a straight knife for a neat and stable finish.
How to make a gingerbread house - assembly
Step 1
Now that you have the wall and roof panels of your gingerbread house, it’s time to join them together. But before we can do that, we need to have an edible joining medium – royal icing!
Your joining medium is simply made from royal icing sugar and water, or Renshaw’s ready-made royal icing (add a few drops of water until a piping consistency)
Royal icing needs to be smooth enough to pipe, but not too runny, or else it won’t hold the gingerbread house together.
Step 2
Fill a piping bag with royal icing and snip off a small end to create a fine nozzle.
With the pieces flat on greaseproof paper, pipe decorative patterns onto the gingerbread roof, sides and end pieces.
Use the royal icing as a glue to attach sweets and chocolates to the walls to embellish your gingerbread house. (Do not attach anything to the roof just yet).
Leave to dry completely before beginning to assemble the house.
Step 3
Pipe royal icing along the bottom and end edges of a long wall piece, and the bottom of an embossed end piece.
Set them onto a cake board at right angles to each other, with the long wall butted up against the end piece. Hold in place for a few minutes until royal icing begins to set.
Use a bowl to hold the piece in place, and repeat to add the remaining long edge and end piece.
Once all four pieces are in place, support with bowls to prevent them from moving, and allow them to completely dry, before adding the roof.
Step 4
Pipe along all exposed edges of walls and end pieces, and put the narrowest piece of the roof on top of your gingerbread house. Lining it up to meet the top point of the embossed end piece.
Hold in place for a few minutes until royal icing begins to set. Use a bowl to hold the piece in place, and pipe a line of royal icing along the apex of the roof.
Repeat to add the remaining roof piece, which is slightly wider. This piece will overlap the first at the apex, and your roof should look the same length on either side of the house when you look at it from the front.
Leave to completely set before adding chocolates or sweets.
Your gingerbread house is now complete! Now’s a great time to decorate your cake board to make your gingerbread house look like it’s in a winter wonderland scene. This can be done with a simple scattering of icing sugar, or even some marshmallow fluff!
If you have any leftover gingerbread dough, you can use this to make some extra biscuits in decorative shapes to use in your scene.
Here’s how to make some classic gingerbread or Christmas tree shapes.
How to make a gingerbread biscuits using leftover dough
Step 1
Cut out a roof piece and divide into four (spread them out a bit so they have room to rise in the oven.)
Step 2
Use the gingerbread man and tree cutters to make shapes out of the leftover dough.
Step 3
Bake for four mins, and allow to cool.
Step 4
Decorate with royal icing and sweets.
