3 Tips For Building A Gingerbread House

Building a gingerbread house is such a fun activity during the holidays, but it can also be super frustrating when things don't go as planned! After years of experience with royal icing and gingerbread house construction, these are my 3 tips for building a gingerbread house.

A gingerbread house decorated with royal icing. The house features a pastel blue and purple filigree design on the front and sides. The roof is decorated with a scalloped pattern and covered in sparkling sugar. The windows and doors of the house are sprinkled with sparkling sugar. The house is sitting on a white base and there is a pink bokeh background with twinkling lights.

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1. Ditch the pre-made icing from the kit

The icing that comes in gingerbread house kits is very hard to squeeze and it hardly sticks to the gingerbread! It's no wonder our gingerbread house falls apart when we use it. It feels like trying to decorate with a wet blob of cornstarch!

I recommend making royal icing from scratch to build your gingerbread house. I prefer to make mine with meringue powder, but you can make it from egg whites too! My recipes are in my book Cookie Canvas and in my Cookie Art Club.

Amber is in the kitchen looking into the bowl of a stand mixer — Photo by Tom Moore

2. (Icing) consistency is key!

With the right icing and the right icing consistency, your house will stay in one piece all season long. When building a gingerbread house, your royal icing should hold a peak but it shouldn't be so stiff that it's difficult to squeeze out of your decorating bag.

I add a few drops of water to my stiff royal icing to make the perfect "glue" for building a gingerbread house. Learn all about icing consistencies in my Ultimate Guide to Royal Icing!

A spatula with a dollop of icing. There is a bowl of icing in the background

3. Decorate first, then build

In order to make intricate designs on your gingerbread house, it's a good idea to decorate the panels while they're laying flat and let the icing dry completely before you put them together. This way, you don't have to worry about the decorations falling off and sliding down the sides of the house!

This is also great for decorating with a group because each person can decorate their own piece of the house.