Gingerbread Houses

It wouldn't be Christmas without a gingerbread house, so why not make your own?
Christmas

Ingredients

For the gingerbread:
250g unsalted butter
200g dark muscovado sugar
7 tbsp. golden syrup
600g plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tsp ground ginger
To decorate:
2 egg whites
Icing pens
500g icing sugar, plus extra to dust
Candy canes
Generous selection of sweets of your choice,
Few edible balls

Method

1
Step 1

Preheat your oven to 180°C. In a large bowl, mix together the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan on a medium heat.

2
Step 2

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, bicarbonate soda and ground ginger. Then stir in the butter mixture to make a dough. Add a drop of water if the dough is too stiff.

3
Step 3

Roll out your dough on a sheet of baking paper and use a house template to cut out the sections of the house until you have two side walls, a front & back wall and two roof panels.

4
Step 4

Bake all of the sections for approximately 15 minutes or until golden brown then set aside to cool.

5
Step 5

Put the egg whites in a large bowl and sift in the icing sugar, then stir to make a thick smooth icing. Spoon into an icing bag and pipe along the edges of the sections - this will act as a glue. Once all of the sections are stuck together set aside and allow to dry for approximately 3 hours or until firm.

6
Step 6

To decorate, pipe icing along the length of the house to look like snow and top with your favourite sweets.