It’s time to gather your ingredients and equipment. First, print out the template and read through the recipe.
Printable Gingerbread House template—print on 8.5x11-inch paper then cut out your pieces for a perfectly proportioned house.
What You’ll Need for Making a Gingerbread House
Though the list is long, ingredients called for are standard. For the few that are not, we’ve included notes to help you find what you need (or hack another solution). As for equipment, you probably have most of what’s needed, particularly if you bake often.
Gingerbread Ingredients
All the baking ingredients below are easy to find at most grocery stores.
- 10 1/2 cups Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking soda
- 3 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
- 2 cups mild molasses
- 1 1/8 cups cold water
- 2 clear hard fruit candies (red, yellow, blue or green)
Royal Icing Ingredients
If you don’t think you’ll use meringue powder or cream of tartar for anything besides this recipe, look for these items in the bulk section of your grocery store.
- 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
- 3 tablespoons meringue powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Decorating Ingredients
Raid the cake decorating aisle of your craft store or the candy aisle of your grocery store to find decorations. We used the items below to decorate our house, but let your creativity guide you.
- Green gumdrops
- Snaps pretzels
- Candy canes
- Candy-coated chocolate balls
- Assorted holiday sprinkles
Equipment
Look for the more specialized items in the cake decorating section of your local craft store; see notes below.
- Stand mixer or electric hand mixer
- Rolling pin
- Decorator bag and small round tip (check your craft store or substitute a resealable plastic bag with one of the corners snipped off)
- Squeeze bottle
- Pizza cutter or sharp knife
- Rubber spatula
- Cookie sheet
- Cooling rack
- Parchment paper
- Resealable plastic bag
- 1-inch round cookie cutter
- 1 ½-inch round cookie cutter
- Cans or bottles (for propping up house from the inside)
- Gel food coloring, if desired
- Tree-shaped cookie cutters, if desired
- People-shaped cookie cutters, if desired
