Spooky Gingerbread House

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• Favorite gingerbread recipe for building
• Microwavable bowls
• Spatulas
• Meltable candy wafers in black, orange & white
• Pumpkin silicone mold
• Popsicle mold
• Favorite royal icing recipe
• Food coloring in black, royal blue & leaf green
• Cookies
• Candies
• Isomalt
• Scissors
• Cake board
• Cardboard
• Halloween cardstock
• Hot glue gun/glue gun sticks
• Clean paintbrush for icing
• Moss
• Fairy lights
• White & chocolate fondant

DIRECTIONS:

1. Design a spooky house on cardboard before baking. It is easier to make a practice house out of cardboard before putting it together with gingerbread. Make templates of all the pieces.
2. Mix gingerbread using preferred recipe. Roll dough between two pieces of parchment paper until 1/6" thick. Transfer dough with bottom piece of parchment onto cookie sheet. Chill gingerbread dough for 30 minutes. After it's chilled, cut out pieces using templates.
3. Cut out all windows, doors and a small half circle into the bottom of the backside of the house. To create siding on the house, use a clean ruler and gently press lines 1/3 of the way into dough. Bake extra pieces to add to the house later. Follow recipe to bake and cool.
4. For a weathered look, mix black, royal blue and leaf green royal icing. Water down icing and "paint" onto sides of the house.
5. It is easier to decorate all sides of the house before assembling.
6. For windows, place gingerbread pieces on an aluminum foil (shiny side up) lined cookie sheet. Follow packaging directions to make Isomalt. Pour Isomalt into window cavities. Allow isomalt to harden completely before lifting.
7. Decorate details around windows with royal icing.
8. Using hot glue, add Halloween cardstock to the inside of the house pieces to look like wallpaper.
9. Melt orange candy wafers to make pumpkins in pumpkin mold. Melt a little black with white to make gray. Pour gray into popsicle molds to make tombstones.
10. The best way to assemble the house is to use glue or royal icing to attach one side of the house to the back piece, hold until dry. Attach other side and then front piece. Glue or use royal icing to secure the house to cardboard. Use the small extra pieces to make little shelves to create the look of a second floor.
11. Use white fondant to make ghosts. Place ghosts on little shelves to peer out of windows.
12. Use candy bars to build a porch and boards for the windows, scrape off chocolate to make a wood look. Attach with melted chocolate.
13. String battery-operated fairy lights from the back of the house all around the windows. Use hot glue gun to attach to gingerbread.
14. Attach roof and cover with a thin layer of black royal icing. Decorate with cookies and royal icing.
15. Decorate cake board with moss, pumpkins and tombstones. Add broken sticks for spooky trees.