The holidays are approaching, which means it’s officially gingerbread house making season. I have fond memories of decorating gingerbread houses with my brother and sister each year. We would decorate them, then display them in the living room with all of our Christmas decorations. We weren’t supposed to eat the house until after Christmas, so naturally, my siblings and I would pick pieces off the back of the gingerbread house; by the time Christmas came around, the gingerbread house was actually rather sparse (and sometimes missing part of the roof…) As young adults, we even had an epic gingerbread house decorating contest. My sister and I recreated our cabin on the lake, complete with rice cereal moose and cookie outhouse. Now that I’m older and have my own kids, I love decorating gingerbread houses with them (and I still pick the candy off the back of the house when nobody’s watching).
Making a gingerbread house from scratch doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy huge house-sized cookie cutters… Though if you really want to, then I’d probably be the first to encourage the purchase, just ask my husband and my excessive cookie cutter collection. To make gingerbread house baking fun and easy for everyone, I created a free printable template so you can make your own gingerbread houses at home.
Free Download: Sugar Cookie House Template
This template for a gingerbread cookie house would work fantastic for either gingerbread or sugar cookies. I recommend decorating each piece of the house before assembling it. This will keep any decorations or icing from sliding off the side of your house. Of course, sometimes it is just easier to build the house first, before decorating it, and that’s okay too!
How to make a Homemade Cookie House:
To use this template for a gingerbread house, simply print this out on standard 8 1/2″ x 11″ letterhead paper, then cut the shapes out along the lines. Place the template shapes on top of your rolled out cookie dough, and use a knife to cut the dough, slicing along the edges of the paper template. Once your cookies are baked and decorated, assemble the house using royal icing to glue the pieces together.
If you use my sugar cookie recipe for this house, you should roll the dough to 1/4″ thick, and bake it for 15 minutes to make sure the cookie is crisp enough all the way through to give it strength to hold the cookie house together (you won’t want to risk it with slightly-undercooked chewy cookies this time around).
Decorate and assemble your cookie house with vegan royal icing, and be sure to add your favourite sprinkles and candies!
If you make this Cookie House, please share your photos and tag me on Instagram @theHomeBakedVegan