My Ultimate Homemade Gingerbread House Kit is easy, gorgeous, and perfect for your holiday table centerpiece.
To make the gingerbread house cookie: On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/4 in. thickness. Cut out your cookies with a sharp knife and the gingerbread house stencil.
Bake at 350°F (180°C) for roughly 15-18 minutes. Allow to fully cool before decorating.
To preliminary decorate the gingerbread house: Fill a piping bag with plain royal icing and a #4 piping tip. Pipe decorative designs on the 4 side cookies. I chose to use a spiral design.
Allow the royal icing to fully dry at room temperature before assembling the house, about 1-2 hours.
To assemble the gingerbread house: Start with the 2 side cookies of the house. Pipe icing on 1 edge of a cookie then line it up with the matching edge of the second cookie to create a 90° angle. Reinforce the attached edge by piping icing on the inside of the cookies at the 90° corner. Hold the 2 sides in place until the royal icing is dry enough to provide stability, about 2-3 minutes. Attach the bottom edges of the house with icing onto a cake board.
To decorate the gingerbread house: Using icing, attach the gumdrop candies along the front roof edge and top edge of the house.
To make vines, dye some icing with green food coloring and fill a piping bag with a #352 tip. Pipe leaf and vine designs on the 4 corners of the house, the windows, and the front roof edge.
To make a tree, cut the ice cream cones crosswise about halfway with a serrated knife. Using the green icing and #352 tip, start from the bottom and pipe leaves along the side of the cone. Continue to pipe up in a circular pattern to completely cover the cone.
This will be an easier process if the icing is super stiff. Add powdered sugar to royal until stiff peaks. Also, adding wet food coloring will change the consistency so when doing the leaves, more powdered sugar should be mixed in before piping.