Halloween Gingerbread House Recipe

Everyone loves a Christmas gingerbread house, but we thought why not make a place where all of our spooky jolly gingers and biscuity monsters can live during the creepiest month of the year! We've used our DIY Gingerbread house kit as the base for the haunted house, and added extra sprinkles, additional coloured icing and biscuits to make the house even more delicious!
How to make the icing
To make traditional hard-set icing, sift the packet of royal icing sugar into a mixing bowl.
Add 1 tbsp of water and beat the mixture with a whisk, slowly adding water until the icing stands up in straight peaks.
This should take around 10-15 minutes by hand or 5-7 minutes if you are using an electric mixer.
Spoon into a piping bag and you’re now ready to ice!
You could also add some food colouring like we have so your haunted house looks extra spooky!

Our top tips for decorating your house
You might want to draw your design onto paper before you start to ice, or look online for some inspiration, we love pinterest!
It’s important to decorate your house before you start to assemble, this way the any decorations you add can dry flat.
When sticking on decorations, use the icing like glue. Pipe a little dot and stick the decoration on whilst the icing is still wet.
Be sure to save roughly half of the icing to build your house.
Leave your icing to dry for at least 30 minutes before starting to assemble.
Little details such as spiders, cobwebs and skeletons are quite easy to ice and are sure to scare your friends and family!

Begin by choosing a sturdy base for your gingerbread house, we find that cake boards are ideal in our grand icing hall. You will need something to help keep the walls of your house study whilst they dry - use whatever you find! We've used cups, bowls and even cocktail sticks!

To start, pipe a thick line of icing along the side and bottom of both side pieces and one end piece. Bring the pieces together so that they stick to each other and your cake board.

• Hold in place for 15 minutes. Use something like a cup to help hold the walls up whilst they dry.
• Repeat the process with the remaining end piece so that your house has 4 walls.
• Once completely dry, pipe a thick line along the top edges of one side of your house.

• Take one roof piece and hold it firmly in place for 15 minutes. Repeat with the second roof piece.
• Finally, pipe a line of icing in the small gap between the two roof pieces and leave your house to dry.