Building a gingerbread house from scratch might sound like a huge undertaking when you can just reach for a kit—but it's not! It just takes some time to let all the pieces dry. You’ll need two batches of gingerbread cookie dough to make this house. To make sturdy templates, transfer the print-outs to clean corrugated cardboard. Keep your baked gingerbread cookies and assembled gingerbread house away from humidity.
Read on for our best tips for baking and decorating success.
Cut the gingerbread pieces before you bake them.
Roll out the dough, then print the house template found here and use a pizza wheel or sharp knife to cut out two pieces of each shape. Bake.
Decorate the walls first.
It might sound counterintuitive, but heavy windows and doors are easiest to apply before you build the house, when the gingerbread pieces are flat. Let them dry a little before standing the pieces upright; otherwise your candy decorations will slide off!
Put a pin in it.
While the icing dries, secure the house by inserting T-pins through the corners (remove them once dry). Don't want to bother with pins? Place sturdy glasses or cans around the walls to hold them up.
Give everything time to set.
Allowing the icing to dry is the most important part of assembly—once it does, it'll be rock solid. This is especially true of the walls—they gotta be sturdy before you add the roof.
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