My friend Izabela of The Cake Mama is taking over the blog today to share her step-by-step guide to building the perfect gingerbread house, along with a vegan gingerbread recipe and vegan royal icing. She walks through essential tips for cutting, decorating, and assembling a stable, beautiful house — and the results are adorable.
Hello everyone! I’m Izabela from The Cake Mama. I’m sharing my best techniques for creating a stunning gingerbread house you can bake and decorate from scratch.
Every year I start planning holiday baking, and a gingerbread house is a must in our household. Over the past few years I’ve worked up the confidence to make everything from scratch. Below you’ll find my reliable vegan gingerbread cookie recipe and aquafaba royal icing — ideal for constructing a house or cutting festive cookies. I’ve also included a printable paper template for the house pieces so you can lay it over rolled dough and cut perfect shapes.
3 Tips for cutting larger cookies
Large cookie shapes, like house panels, are trickier than small cookies. These tips help you keep shapes intact and prevent warping.
- Chill your dough before rolling to firm it up.
- Roll the dough on a silicone mat or a sheet of parchment that fits your baking sheet — transfer the whole mat or parchment to the pan to avoid lifting and distorting shapes.
- Place another piece of parchment over the dough while rolling. This prevents sticking so you won’t need to add extra flour, which can dry out the cookies.
How to Build the Perfect Gingerbread House
Decorating can feel intimidating when you see elaborate Pinterest designs, but you don’t need candy overload to make an impressive house. I prefer classic white piping on gingerbread and a focus on delicate details. Below are practical tips to make assembly and decorating simple and effective.
Tip 1: Microplane Your Gingerbread House Pieces
After baking and cooling, pieces may have lost precise edges due to spreading. Use a microplane to lightly file and straighten the edges. This cleans up the look and ensures the bottoms are flat so the house sits level instead of tipping.
Tip 2: Use White Food Color To Paint Your Design
Paint a light guideline with a fine brush and white food color before piping. This gives you a faint template to follow and helps steady your hand as you pipe. Sketching ideas on paper first can build confidence and muscle memory.
Tip 3: Decorate All Sides and Roof Before Assembling
Many people are surprised to learn that I decorate the house pieces flat before building. Treat each panel like a cookie: pipe all details while pieces lie flat. This makes piping easier and more precise. Use royal icing at a toothpaste-like consistency for detailed piping, and if using metal tips, choose no larger than a #2 for fine lines.
Tip 4: Use A Star Tip to “Glue” The House Together
A star tip (I use a #21 open star) leaves textured stripes that improve grip when joining pieces and doubles as trim, reducing the number of piping bags you need. For assembly, use royal icing at a cream-cheese like consistency.
After your decorations have dried for about an hour, pipe a line of icing along the back edges of the front panel, attach the side panels one at a time, then attach the back. Let the structure rest for 30 minutes to set. If mounting on a board or cake stand, pipe a strip of icing along the bottom edges to adhere the house.
Apply icing to the roof peaks and carefully place the roof panels. Allow the roof to set for about 20 minutes before adding final piping details.
Tip 5: Use A Sea Shell Piping Design To Clean Up & Dress Up Your House
To hide excess dried icing or seams, pipe a shell border with the star tip along the bottom edges and up toward the roof on each side. Add matching shell piping along the roof edges and peaks to finish and conceal any gaps.
Voila — your gingerbread house is complete! If you make one, tag me on Instagram @the.cake.mama!
Happy Decorating!
Vegan Gingerbread for Houses
The Perfect Homemade Gingerbread House Recipe
The Cake Mama shares a vegan gingerbread and royal icing recipe to make a stable, decorative gingerbread house from scratch.
Baking, Holiday
American
Baking, Gingerbread, holiday
The Cake Mama
Ingredients
For the Gingerbread
- 1/2 cup vegan butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup fancy molasses
- 2 flax eggs*
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- Water, 1 tbsp at a time if needed to bring the dough together
For the Royal Icing
- 1 can chickpeas (use the aquafaba/water from the can)
- 1 tbsp cream of tartar
- 1–2 2 kg bags icing sugar (add gradually)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (Mexican vanilla if available)
- Bright white food color (optional, to whiten)
Instructions
For the Gingerbread
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream vegan butter with both sugars in a mixer using the paddle attachment, then add vanilla.
- Mix flax eggs in a small bowl and let thicken for a few minutes. Combine dry ingredients in another bowl. Add the flax egg and molasses to the wet ingredients and mix well.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. If the dough is too sticky, add flour 1/4 cup at a time. If too dry, add water 1 tbsp at a time. Transfer dough between two sheets of parchment, cut shapes, remove scraps, and transfer the parchment to a baking sheet.
- Bake 8–12 minutes or until edges are slightly darker. If your oven runs hot, start checking at 8 minutes. Let cookies cool completely on the sheet before moving. For house pieces, bake a day ahead so they crisp and strengthen.
For the Royal Icing
- Open a 540 ml can of chickpeas and reserve the liquid (aquafaba). Pour the liquid into a mixer with the paddle attachment and add cream of tartar. Whip on high for about 10 minutes until the mixture quadruples in volume and resembles a meringue.
- Reduce speed to stir, add vanilla and white food color, then slowly add icing sugar. The mixture should become completely stiff. Add water 1 tbsp at a time to reach a stiff-peak consistency suitable for piping.
- Portion out icing as needed, and for each portion add 1/4 tsp of water at a time until you reach the desired piping or glue consistency.
Recipe Notes
*One flax egg = 1 tbsp ground flax mixed with 3 tbsp warm water.
More Gingerbread Recipes
For additional holiday baking ideas, try other gingerbread variations such as gingerbread ornaments, pear gingerbread muffins, or gingerbread pear pancakes for seasonal inspiration.
Gingerbread House Print Template