How to host a gingerbread house party

To host a gingerbread house party you will need

Gingerbread. You can buy kits from the supermarket, or a bakery or make your own (recipe and templates below). Homemade will taste the best but does take more time.
Extra gingerbread pieces to aid in creativity (optional)
Gingerbread men for the school aged kids to decorate. I have prizes for the best primary school and best high school.
Lollies (candy if you are in the US). Place these in sealed containers so that each family has their own. That way it doesn’t matter if a child licks frosting off their fingers and then puts their hand into the lollies.
Royal icing (recipe below), make fresh on the day and store in the fridge. Seal each bag with an elastic band.
If you are doing gingerbread men then a mini bag of icing for each of the kids too.
scissors to cut the top of the icing bags.
A cake board each to build the house on.
Large sheets of cellophane to wrap the houses, florists have these.
ribbon to tie the cellophane.
Supplies for the games, this will vary depending on which games you choose to play, watch the video for some ideas.
Prizes for the games – we use extra edible things that can be used to make the house unique. Winners get to choose something from the prize table.
Tokens and boxes for voting.
A prize for the category winners. We had a prize for best story, prettiest and most creative.
Table cloths – This makes it much easier to clean up, it can get pretty sticky.
A vacuum cleaner – I vacuum and mop twice after this party. Definitely not one to do on carpet.

The 5 simple house templates

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To make your own houses you could make them all the same or make a different of shapes. One batch of gingerbread dough will make 2 houses with some left over for gingerbread men.

Gingerbread Recipe

430g (15.17 ounces) or 2 cups butter or margarine, melted (note margarine has more water than butter so reduce the milk slightly)
430g (15.17 ounces) or 2 cups caster (super fine) sugar
250g (8.82 ounces) or 2/3 cup glucose syrup
260g (9.17 ounces) or 3/4 cup molasses (note you can swap glucose and molasses for other syrups that you like. However if the one you use has more water in, as some syrups do, then you will end up with a very runny dough and therefore will either need to add a lot more flour or reduce the milk).
180 mL (6.09 fluid ounces) or 2/3 cup milk (4%)
1195g (42.15 ounces) or 7 1/2 cups plain flour
12g (0.42 ounces) or 2 tsp bicarb soda
SPICES (these are totally optional you can adjust the quantity of spices to make it taste how you want)
20g (0.71 ounces) or 3 Tbsp cinnamon
12g (0.42 ounces) or 2 Tbsp ground cloves
30g (1.06 ounces) or 5 Tbsp ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nigella seeds (gives it a slight peppery kick, like spicy ginger)

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix until just combined. Cover and put the bowl in the fridge for 2 hours to make the dough thicker and easier to cut out.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (356 degrees Fahrenheit).
Roll out the dough on a sheet of baking paper. Sprinkle the dough with flour and add the template on top. Cut around the template. See the video for demonstration. Double check which pieces say cut 2.

Baking time will depend on your oven I like to check after 15 minutes, redo the cuts, remove the borders and windows and then bake for a further 10 minutes if needed. Then for any pieces that are not firm i flip them oven so the moisture can evaporate and pop them back into the oven for a little longer.

Royal icing

1kg (2.2 pounds) or 7 ¾ cups icing (powdered) sugar
50g (1.76 ounces) powdered egg white or 114g (4.02 ounces) pavlova magic mix
125mL (4.23 fluid ounces) or 1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla or other flavouring essence of your choice (vanilla will make it slightly cream coloured).

Have fun

My Cookbook

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All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.