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This Valentine’s Day Gingerbread House is so fun to assemble! Decorated with cute Valentine’s candies and colors, gingerbread houses aren’t just for Christmas anymore!
Gingerbread houses aren’t just for Christmas anymore. Decorating a Valentine’s Day house is a fun way to celebrate Valentine’s Day too! Get creative with candies, crackers, cookies, and any other colorful treats.
Start by creating the walls and roof of the house using this free, downloadable gingerbread house template. Then bake and “glue” the pieces together with royal icing for a sturdy structure to decorate.
🩷Echo
Table of Contents
Ingredients
This Valentine’s gingerbread house dough recipe is very easy to work with and it is nice and strong. We never have any problems with it chipping or breaking. I love that the dough is a lighter color and looks more like sugar cookie dough for Valentine’s Day.
- Light corn syrup – This gives the dough a thick and strong texture that holds the baked dough together.
- Brown sugar – For taste and color, this brown sugar is delicious to eat and gives it sweetness!
- Margarine – You will want to use this instead of butter. The margarine will give it a softer and chewy texture.
- Flour – The all-purpose flour mixture of dry ingredients that will give the dough texture and thickness.
- Salt – Add a pinch of salt to help it fluff up while baking and give it thickness.
Icing
This gingerbread icing is a special icing that is known as royal icing. Place the icing in a piping bag to pipe royal icing on the sides and edges of the gingerbread pieces or use it to decorate the walls. It is so easy to make and holds the icing in place when used.
- Meringue powder – This is found in the baking aisle and is a white powder that is an egg white substitute.
- Warm water – This will help thin out the icing and make it easier to flood if needed.
- Powdered sugar – Thicken the frosting and add sweetness to it at the same time!
How to Make a Valentine Gingerbread House
- Template – Print out the gingerbread house pattern, or use a pattern of your own. Cut out the pattern. Trace it on light cardboard. Use a sharp knife to cut out the cardboard.
- Heat – In a medium microwave-safe bowl, heat corn syrup, brown sugar, and margarine until the margarine is melted and the sugar is completely dissolved. Stir until smooth.
- Make the Dough – In a large bowl or a stand mixer, combine flour and salt. Add the heated sugar mixture and mix on low speed. Blend in the mixer, or knead with your hands into the dough.
- Rest Dough – Combine the dough into a large mound and wrap it in plastic. Let dough rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
- Roll Out the Dough – After 30 minutes, turn the oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap the dough, and roll it out into 1/8-¼ inch thickness on a large piece of parchment paper (¼ inch thickness makes pretty thick and heavy pieces to work with if you use ⅛ inch the pieces are thinner and you can stretch the dough to make two houses). If the dough is too hard, you can microwave it for 20-30 seconds. This softens the dough and makes it more manageable.
- Cut the Dough – Lightly flour the cardboard patterns and place them on the rolled-out dough, leaving a 1-inch space between pieces. For clean edges, cut with a pizza wheel. Remove and reserve excess dough.
- Bake – Grab the opposite edges of the parchment paper and transfer it to the baking sheet. Bake 15-17 minutes or until pieces are firm and lightly browned on the edges. Cool completely on a wire rack before removing from the pans.
- Make Royal Icing – Combine icing ingredients in a mixer and blend on low speed until ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium/high and blend for 5 more minutes. Icing should be thick, shiny, stiff and white.
- Construct the House – Place icing in a piping bag. Use the icing as the glue to hold the baked walls and roof pieces together to form a house.
- Decorate with Candy – Use Valentine’s Day candy to decorate your house.
Decorating Your House
Anything goes when it comes to decorating your sweet little house. Start with a batch of our royal icing which is easy to make and hardens up when it sets so your candies stay in place. Every gingerbread house is unique – use your imagination and have fun!
- M&Ms – Each holiday the famous M&MS change the colors and create a festive bag with specialty colors. Pink, purple, white, and red and popular and perfect to add to the gingerbread house.
- Heart candies – Use these for the walls, pavement, or roof. Always love to have colorful hearts on the sides.
- Gum – Cut the gum into strips or pieces for texture and look. Use the thinner gum pieces and red or pink gum is fun and festive to add.
- Gum Drops – Classic gum drops are perfect to have on the roof or the lower base area of the house. They are heavier and tend to slide if not put in the right places.
- Licorice – Slice the licorice or use it as stripes on the roof. Several types of licorice work for this decoration.
- Candy Corn – Usually candy corn will have a white and pink or white and purple coloring for Valentine’s or Easter. These are great to use when going up the walls.
- Cookies – Cut the cookies in half or use them directly on the house.
- Pretzels – There are a few different types and shapes of pretzels that will help decorate.
- Mints – Candy mints or breath mints are fun to play with and give a new idea!
- Candy canes – Use leftover Christmas candy canes and shape them into hearts.
- Ice cream cones – These are great for trees or extra layers on the edges of the gingerbread home.
Storing
Take your baked gingerbread house pieces place them in an airtight container and place them in a dry area or refrigerate until ready to use. You can stack the house pieces on top of each other carefully when storing. These sides and roofs will stay fresh for a few weeks.
More Valentine Desserts
These are a few of our favorite treats to spoil those that we love during the love month! These are all so simple to make and come together quickly and easily. Share the love through desserts this Valentine’s Day!
Valentine Gingerbread House
Ingredients
- 2 cups light corn syrup
- 1 ½ cups light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 ¼ cups margarine
- 9 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Royal Icing, recipe below
- Decorative cookies, candies, sprinkles, etc.
For the icing:
- 3 Tablespoons meringue powder , or 3 egg whites, but if you plan on eating the icing, use the meringue powder
- 6 Tablespoons warm water
- 4 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Print out the gingerbread house pattern, or use a pattern of your own. Cut out the pattern on light cardboard (I used a large cereal box).
- Click here for the gingerbread house pattern.
- In a medium microwave-safe bowl, microwave corn syrup, brown sugar, and margarine for 1 minute. Stir, return to microwave for 1 minute.
- Stir, return for additional 1-1 ½ minutes stirring every 30 sec until the margarine is melted and the sugar is completely dissolved.
- In a large bowl or mixer, combine flour and salt. Add the heated sugar mixture. Blend in the mixer, or knead with your hands, into the dough.
- Combine the dough into a large mound and wrap it in plastic. Let dough rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
- After 30 minutes, turn the oven to 350 degrees. Cut parchment paper the size of your cookie sheet, lightly flour and roll out a quarter of the dough at a time into ¼ inch thickness. This will make 2 houses, but you can make 3 houses rolling out the scraps of dough. If the dough is too hard, you can microwave it for 20-30 seconds. This softens the dough and makes it more manageable.
- Lightly flour the cardboard patterns and place them on the rolled-out dough, leaving a 1-inch space between pieces. For clean edges, cut with a pizza wheel. Remove and reserve excess dough.
- Grab the opposite edges of the parchment paper and transfer it to the baking sheet. Bake 16-18 minutes or until pieces are firm and lightly browned on the edges.
- Keep baked pieces on pans for 20 minutes then transfer to cool completely on a cooling rack.
- Once the pieces are cool, you can start assembling your house using the Royal Icing and decorative cookies, candies, sprinkles, etc. Every gingerbread house is unique – use your imagination and have fun!
For the icing:
- Blend all the ingredients together in a mixer, scraping the sides as you go.
- This icing hardens and dries out quickly. As you decorate your house, take out the amount you will need and leave the remaining icing in a bowl covered with a wet dishcloth or plastic wrap.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Wonderful idea.
This is an adorable idea!!
FYI…the link for the pattern goes to Eastern European recipes.
whoops. We will get on that.
Your Valentines Day Gingerbread house is so pretty!