Start a new Halloween tradition
Making gingerbread houses is a holiday tradition in our family! This was our first year making a Halloween version. But it definitely won’t be the last! With things feeling very different this year and many of our typical Halloween festivities being tabled, I wanted to come up with some other fun ideas to make things feel special. Decorating a haunted version of a gingerbread house turned out to be so much fun! There were sprinkles and icing everywhere, but my kids and I had a blast doing these and it was so fun to be creative together! Totally worth the mess. If you are looking for more Halloween fun, be sure to check out my Homemade Caramel Apples, Graveyard Dirt Cake, Apple Cider Donuts, and Halloween Chocolate Cherry Hand Pies! Sure, you can always pick up a gingerbread house kit, which I have done a time or two, but they are always so disappointing! There is never enough candy in those things, the “glue” icing is always a pain to work with, and the gingerbread pieces themselves don’t even smell like gingerbread! The answer: Learn how to make a gingerbread house yourself at home! It’s really no more difficult than making cut-out sugar cookies! Plus, then you get to adjust your house design to be the shape or size you want, your house will smell like gingerbread for days, and it’s way more fun to decorate with better (and more) candy than the basic ones that come in the box kit. So turn on some Halloween music (we LOVE the “Nightmare Before Christmas” soundtrack) and let your spooky side show! It would even be fun to throw a gingerbread house decorating party with friends and make it a contest to see who can decorate the creepiest, most creative, or best all around gingerbread house! You can bake the gingerbread house pieces well in advance so everyone gets their own, or divide up into couple or teams and make it a joint effort! The nice thing about Halloween gingerbread houses is that there is even less pressure to make them look “perfect” than with their Christmas counterparts. If things fall off or look wonky, it just makes the house look more dilapidated and spooky! Here are the Halloween gingerbread house creations made by my 9 and 6 year olds. I wasn’t planning on photographing them for this post, but decided that nobody cares about “pinterest perfect” and they were so pleased when I said their houses should be photographed so I could put them on the blog.
My go-to gingerbread house recipe
I feel like I need to disclaim that this is construction gingerbread. It’s 100% edible, but I’m not making any promises about it tasting amazing. It’s pretty hard once its baked and made to hold up to humidity and sitting out for a few weeks. If you want delicious gingerbread cookies, this recipe is my favorite! That said, my kids kept nibbling on spare pieces of the gingerbread whenever I wasn’t looking. Instead, this recipe is made to hold up to being on display and bearing the weight of loads of frosting and candy. It’s a very thick dough and doesn’t need to be chilled before baking. But it still holds its shape well and doesn’t puff up around the edges. I’ve been using this recipe for more than 15 years of baking homemade gingerbread houses and it’s definitely a keeper!
How to make a Halloween gingerbread house
Gingerbread house icing
This gingerbread house icing is really just my easy royal icing recipe with the vanilla left out. We typically don’t eat our gingerbread houses, even if it is totally edible, so I don’t worry about flavoring the royal icing with vanilla. The key is getting it just the right consistency. You want it thick enough that you can pipe it and it will hold it’s shape. But not so thick that it’s super dry, hard to pipe, and not really sticky enough to hold the house pieces together. I recommend starting with the minimum amount of water, then adding more a little at a time until you get it just where you like it.
Halloween gingerbread house decorations
Decorating Tips
If your pieces break, which can happen every now and then (especially if you drop them), you can always glue them back together with royal icing and cover up the flaws with candy! If your house isn’t holding together, you could always break out the glue gun and just glue the thing together. I know it’s cheating and gingerbread house purists will be aghast that I would suggest such a thing, but it’s better than stressing over a gingerbread house that won’t come together. Feel free to use your piping skills by decorating the walls with royal icing BEFORE assembling the house. Windows and other designs look so beautiful on gingerbread houses, but are crazy hard to pipe on vertical walls. Let them dry and harden overnight before assembling the house and finishing the design.
I would LOVE to see your gingerbread house creations! If you make one, please send me a pic or tag me on Instagram so I can see! Happy haunting!
Black licorice: I’m not a fan of eating black licorice, but it’s great for decorating gingerbread houses! Wrap each piece in thin black wire, then twist a few of them together to form haunted trees. Or use them to decorate eaves, doors, paths, or outline windows or other house features! Candy corn: I’ll admit that I DO love eating candy corn. These add a classic October element to your gingerbread houses. Use them to make picket fences, as “teeth” around doors or windows, or to shingle the roof! Pumpkin candies: These are another Halloween classic that are so fun to use to decorate around your Halloween gingerbread house. But be warned, kids will probably eat as many of these as they use on their houses. Colored sixlets or M&Ms: You can buy bags of sixlets in any color at most party stores and they are great for decorating gingerbread houses! The colors are vibrant, the shape and size are perfect, they stick well, and can be used in so many ways! Hershey’s Cookies & Cream bars: This is one of my FAVORITE elements of my Halloween gingerbread house. Cut or break apart squares and use them as cobblestone pavers or shutters! Googly eye sprinkles: These were a favorite element at our gingerbread house decorating party! I had three different sizes of googly eyes that I grabbed at my local craft store. Or you can even make your own! Halloween sprinkles or decorations: There are so many of these to choose from at Halloween and they always add a big impact. Some brands make fun, larger candy decorations like ghosts, bats, and black cats that are fun decorating elements.
More fun Halloween ideas
Halloween Sugar Cookie Bars Graveyard Dirt Cake Homemade Caramel Apples Halloween Sugar Cookies Poison Apples
Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
