The 2023 Gingerbread Houses

I must admit that every year I approach the annual gingerbread house with some trepidation. But I've been making at least one house every year for about ten years now and I've now got it down to a fine art. This year's was the easiest yet!

A few years back I bought some gingerbread house cutters, and they are brilliant. I've been using the same gingerbread recipe for years which is an old recipe from Tesco, it's not even online anymore. I've simplified it, and also worked out the exact quantities that I need to make two houses from my cutters with a small amount left over.

Here's the recipe that I use for two houses. Melt together the wet ingredients (375g butter, 300g muscovado sugar, 9 tbsp golden syrup) then add to the dry ingredients (940g plain flour, 3 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 3 tsp ground ginger, 3tsp mixed spice) and mix together into a dough. 

I roll the gingerbread out directly onto baking paper, cut out the piece, and then lift the paper straight onto the baking tray so that the pieces keep their shape. This year I remembered to start with the largest pieces first, because it's easier to cut out the smaller pieces towards the end when you don't have as much dough left. The pieces bake in the oven at 180 for about 9 minutes. I make the gingerbread a couple of days before I assemble the houses so that they have time to harden a little.

To assemble the houses I use royal icing sugar and an icing syringe and nozzles set. First I put the walls together, making sure to put plenty of icing under the pieces on the base. Then I leave for a few minutes before putting on the roof and holding in place with plenty of icing. Finally it's time to decorate with more icing and sweets. 

Here are this year's efforts, decorated by the children!

I make two houses because then the children have one each to decorate. This does however mean that I only get to do the building of the houses and not the fun part of decorating, so I think that next year I may make three houses so that I get one to decorate too! The gingerbread keeps for ages, certainly as long as we need it to, and after a couple of days I break the houses up and put them into cake tins.

I always say that I'll make gingerbread houses throughout the year for different occasions like Easter but when it comes to it I can never face it. Maybe this will be the year, as they are delicious if I say so myself! 

The 2023 Gingerbread Houses

Making a gingerbread house at Christmas is a tradition that I started back in 2012. I can't believe that it has been ten years of gingerbread houses! Well apart from last year as we were away the week before Christmas and we just didn't have time to make one. But I wasn't allowed to get away with that, and so we had to make Easter houses instead!

I use a recipe from Tesco which is unfortunately no longer available. My first houses were made using their paper template, but the more recent ones are made using some brilliant gingerbread house cutters which I bought in the US a few years ago. I've made gingerbread houses so many times that I have a printed out recipe which is annotated with the different quantities that I need according to how many houses I'm making. One year I made five! It is a bit of a mission though so I was glad to stick with just the two this year.

We had a lovely time making the gingerbread and then decorating the houses. As the children are getting older there is more that they can do to help, even if it's just keeping me company for the endless rolling and cutting out! We were reasonably successful this year, Mia's house did fall apart a little bit but I told her that just means that she can start eating it sooner!

The houses don't stick around as decorations, the children start eating them almost straight away. Which is probably a good thing, because there are so many other treats around at Christmas that it's good to spread them out a bit!

Making gingerbread houses for Easter

A few years ago we started a new Christmas tradition - homemade gingerbread houses. I would always make two houses, one for each of the children to decorate, and I made the gingerbread from scratch. A bit of a faff but the children loved making them (and eating them!) Last Christmas we were away for quite a bit of the Christmas holiday and I couldn't find the time to make them. This led to much disappointment, so I promised them that we would make Easter gingerbread houses instead. 

So the first day of the Easter holidays found me in the kitchen baking up shaped pieces of gingerbread ready to assemble into two houses! I make the gingerbread pieces a couple of days before so that the gingerbread has time to harden a little. The recipe that I use isn't available online any more but this one is very similar and also includes a printable template - Simple gingerbread house recipe. 

I cut out my pieces using some cutters which I bought in the US a few years back. Buying the cutters felt like a bit of an indulgence at the time but I've used them so often that it was definitely worth it, especially for the one year that I ended up making five houses for a gingerbread house decorating party!

So I present our Easter gingerbread houses! First up we have Harry. He's not a fan of sweets so chose to use chocolate buttons and chocolate eggs.

Meaning that there were plenty of sweets left for Mia, who covered every available space!

I just love how their houses are so different and reflect their little personalities. It's also great that as they get older they can manage more of the decorating themselves, maybe one day they'll be making gingerbread houses for me!