Reader Idea: DIY Halloween Gingerbread House

This awesome tutorial is brought to you by Chari, the blogger behind the fabulous blog, Take Time to Smell the Roses.


It makes perfect sense to make a haunted Halloween Gingerbread house, I just never thought of it. I am totally inspired!

DIY Halloween Gingerbread House


Baking your house:

Recipe:

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup dark molasses

2 tablespoons cold water (I ended up using much more)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream together shortening, sugar, molasses and water. Sift together flour, spices and salt. Add dry ingredients to shortening mixture and mix well. Dough will be stiff. Chill at least 1 hour. Grease or spray mold with vegetable stray. Press dough into the mold. Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Let gingerbread cool in the mold for 10 minutes. Carefully remove each piece of gingerbread to cooling rack, flat side down. Repeat with other side, front, roof and chimney.

Section out a piece then roll it out on a floured large wooden cutting board. Drape it over the mold and press in and remove all the extra dough. It is much easier than trying to cut around a paper template! You will want to bake your gingerbread houses a couple of days in advanced so the  will dry hard. I typically lay them on a drying rack and cover with a paper towel.

Putting your house together:

It is best to glue the house together a day in advance or at least several hours before you decorate. When you glue the houses together with royal icing you will want to make sure you give it enough time to thoroughly dry since you use a lot of icing to glue it together.

Chari used the Wilton Royal Icing Recipe (2 batches) for the glue.  First, make a batch of orange colored royal icing to glue the houses together. You can use the remaining orange frosting for decorating. Make another batch of royal icing and split to make green, blue and purple colored icing.  Halloween colors are pretty bright so you have to use quite a bit of color to get it to a bright shade. This was especially true with the orange.

After you mix your colors you need to put them into icing decorating bags or ziplock bags right away. Royal icing dries super quick. If you need to buy some time you can cover it with a damp paper towel. What is great about putting the royal icing into ziplock bags is that you can make it ahead of time then store it in the refrigerator and clip the end off with scissors when it's time to decorate.

                                                                   

To construct the house, you will need a sturdy board of some type.


Next, cover the board with foil.







Start by gluing a couple of pieces together. Use LOTS of icing, don't skimp! You don't want it falling apart especially while someone is decorating it or when they take it home! Use lots of icing on the inside part since it won't be seen.



Then glue on roof and chimney.


















Decorating your house:

There are no rules here except to have fun. Invite friends and family and have a decorating party. Here are some pictures from Chari's party:

Now the finished houses!

Thank you to Chari for sharing! I am looking for some great ideas for Thanksgiving, so if you have some ideas, recipes, or fantastically decorated cookies, cakes, or cupcakes and would like to be featured on Cake Mom, please email me at jamielz@verizon.net.