A quick and easy beginners gingerbread house
The Elf Gingerbread House was created when I needed a quick and easy gingerbread house for a gingerbread party/fellowship at a local church. Most of the participants were very new at gingerbread house decorating, and many had never used a pastry bag!
The approximate footprint/size of this house is 6.5″ wide x 4″ deep x 8″ tall.
The Elf Gingerbread House is great for beginners. The house has a large enough roof and a good size front-gable wall, both allowing for fun gingerbread house decorating. The Elf Gingerbread House is also a breeze to roll, cut, bake and assemble – especially when many are needed for a gingerbread house decorating party.
For the base, since this house is small, I was able to purchase flat 12″ square pieces of cardboard. This allowed plenty of yard to decorate.
Special Design Elements
How-To instructions for special design elements can be found on the blog at www.gingerbreadbydesign.com (a website dedicated to the sharing of how-to instructions, templates, pictures, ideas, recipes, contests, etc.). I used the following special design element for this specific gingerbread house:
Decoration Candy
Doesn’t everybody have a box of left-over candy stored in their closet, at all times? I’m always scoping-out the perfect candy for my next gingerbread creation!
Candy used for this gingerbread house:
- Walls: broken Necco candy
- Roof: Peppermint star candy; Red-hot cinnamon candy
- Chimney: broken Necco candy
- Window Trim: pink Jelly Beans
- Front Door: Wafer cookie, mini-candy canes
- Front Walkway: white Jelly Beans; Peppermint red/green striped candy; mini-marshmallows
- Bushes: Marshmallow cereal treats
- Grass/Snow: Shredded coconut
- Food Coloring: Red, Green
- Sanding Sugar: Green
Templates
Templates are available for this gingerbread house via electronic download of a .pdf file, or pre-printed and shipped.
Download – Template downloads are available in the Gingerbread-By-Design Online Store. Download the .pdf e-Template to your electronic device, print on your printer, cut-out the template pieces and assemble per the instructions provided. All templates are full-size and ready to use. No enlarging required.
Pre-Printed – Pre-printed templates are available in the Gingerbread-By-Design Online Store. These templates are pre-printed for you to then cut-out the template pieces, cut your pieces from gingerbread dough, bake, and assemble per the instructions provided. The pre-printed template packet includes:
- Template printed on 67lb card stock
- Supply and Candy List
- Recipes, including number of batches needed
- Rolling, Cutting, and Baking instructions
- Assembly instructions with step-by-step pictures
- Decorating suggestions, including design elements utilized
- Handy ziplock storage bag to store your templates
All templates are full-size and ready to use. No enlarging required.
