Fun Halloween Gingerbread house!
I created this Haunted Gingerbread House for the 2002 Oregon State Fair, where I took first place!
This was the first time I had ever done anything besides a fun and cheery holiday gingerbread house. The state fair contest was sponsored by Brer Rabbit molasses, and cookies had to also be submitted with the entry. When I was dropping off my entry, I realized I forgot my cookies in the car!!!!! I had to run all the way across the state fairgrounds to fetch my cookies!
The approximate footprint/size of this house is 9″ wide x 10″ deep x 10″ tall.
This Haunted Gingerbread House was my first attempt at creating something whimsical with uneven walls, and my first ever gingerbread house where brown and black was the major color theme!
My favorite design aspect of this house is the witch and ghost that are made from store-bought Marzipan.
This Haunted Gingerbread House includes a wrought iron fence… one of my favorite special design elements that I now use almost anywhere I can! I learned this method several years ago, and while not perfect I am able to produce a nice consistent rounded effect to mimic metal. Below are the step-by-step directions using black frosting, for the fence on Heidi’s Gingerbread House.
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:
- Fence & Railing – Wrought-Iron with edible re-bar
- Bushes – Flake cereal, Marshmallow, green food coloring
- Poured Sugar Windows
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:
- Roof: Brown Frosting sprinkled with black sanding sugar
- Walls: Brown frosting sprinkled with 7 grain cereal
- Porch Roof: Graham Cracker
- Chimney: Candy corn
- Front Porch: Graham Cracker
- Front Door: Chocolate bar
- Door Mat: Chocolate cookie
- Front Walkway: Necco candy
- Window Shutters: Chocolate wafer cookies
- Window Boxes: Mini-Tootsie Rolls
- Bushes: Flake cereal and Marshmallows
- Ground Cover: Brown frosting, powder unsweetened cocoa
- Fence Posts: Black licorice
- Headstones: Nutter-Butter cookies
- Pumpkins: Pumpkin Peeps
- Children: Marzipan and desired food coloring
- Food Coloring: Green and Brown
- Sanding Sugar: Black
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.
