One of our annual traditions is making a Gingerbread House at Christmas and decorating it. It is such a fun activity and we decided that doing it only once a year was not on and a poor use of our mould, so we decided that for the next year we are going to make a seasonal house and this is our haunted gingerbread house. We had so much fun making and decorating it.
One of the brilliant things about having kids if they give me the excuse to decorate seasonally. I love Halloween and decorating the house. Any excuse to get the decorations out is good in my book! When TSB asked me to talk about my dream house this week, I decided that at the moment, my dream house is actually a haunted gingerbread house and the beauty is that you do not need a mortgage for it.
Over the years we have perfected our gingerbread recipe and this one is not too gingery and perfect for kids, plus it is really forgiving and makes really great haunted gingerbread houses.
Ingredients
- 350g / 12oz plain flour
- 175g / 6oz light soft brown sugar
- 100g / 4oz butter
- 1 medium egg
- 4 tablespoons of golden syrup
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- ½ teaspoon of ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c.
- Pop the butter and the dry ingredients in to a bowl and mix until it resembles a bread crumb consistency. I call this tickling the mixture to the boys and it really helps.
- Add the egg, vanilla extract and golden syrup and mix with your hands until it comes together in to a dough.
- Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Flour a top and rolling pin and roll out to a 5mm thickness before cutting out your required shape and placing on a baking tray.
- Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, then place on to a wire rack to cool.
- Decorate as required.
We use a gingerbread house mould (UK Link/US Link), but you could cut it with a cardboard template. Once your house is made and baked, then comes the fun of assembly. We use our failsafe gingerbread icing to make sure that it does not fall apart. I try to leave it overnight to set fully.
The the fun bit decorating. I sit on my hands for this bit and leave it to the boys to decorate. My job is buying the candies, chocolate and sweets to decorate it. This year we founds some fab decorations from M&S. The boys loved decorating it and can not wait until I let them eat it with their friends.
If your dream home is more bricks and mortar, rather than flour and sugar, then make sure you check out the TSB mortgage calculator to work out how much you can borrow and how much it will be each month.
A seasonal house is a fab idea and a great use of your mould. The boys did a stunning job here – I like the jelly worm feet!!
I wouldn’t want to eat the house after making it, too nice lol x
Great post that gingerbread house is amazing! I love the way the legs come out of the door it reminds me of the wizard of oz, the detail gone into the house is fantastic and it is perfect foe Halloween.
Love the idea of combining Halloween and gingerbread houses. It’s all a bit Hansel and Gretelish and that seems very apt for Halloween.
Thank you SO much for this, My little boy has seen these Halloween houses in Morrisons and I said we could probable make our own.
I absolutely LOVE this idea Jen! We only ever do gingerbread houses for Christmas but you’ve made me want to do a spooky one for Halloween too now. Love the witches legs, they are the perfect finishing touch I think.
This is amazing! I love this for Halloween!
What a great idea for Halloween, and I love the way that the house is decorated.
That looks amazing, what a great idea doing one for Halloween 🙂
Very cool, Jen, you are an absolute mistress of fun, I am sure the boys appreciate your skills and expertise!xx
This is awesome – mine keep asking to make a gingerbread house and we could do this next week
It’s brilliant, I love it! We also make a gingerbread house every Christmas but I’d not thought of making one at any other time of year, and a Halloween house would be perfect. In fact I’m having some friends over for a Halloween party next week, I might make some little ones for the children to decorate, thanks for the idea!
What a fab idea and they’ve done a grand job of decorating the Spooky House. The spooky gingerbread men are just delightful 😀
I really love the idea of making a seasonal house and of making one at a time of year when it’s not (quite) so hectic! I always intend to do one at Christmas but it doesn’t always happen!
What a fun idea, certainly a change to have it for Halloween
I love the idea of making a Halloween ginger bread house! What a great idea!
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This is awesome.
I’ve only tried a gingerbread house once but it all fell apart almost instantly.
I’m almost gutted we are away as the kids would love to try this
ha great idea, I can’t wait for christmas though. good half term activitiy with the kids to do.
What a fab job, I have always wanted to make one and have been staying that for some years now. So i must give it a go with the girls this christmas.