Gingerbread House Kits simplify baking and creating a classic Gingerbread House. Starting from scratch is even better. Do it yourself!

I think we can all agree that the holiday season is hectic. Between buying presents and coordinating plans with family, time is of the essence. Well, that's where gingerbread house kits come in.

Currently, kits come pre-built, pre-assembled, and even pre-baked. If you have small children, grandchildren, or just a fun family, the tradition of baking, assembling, and building a gingerbread house provides the joy and festivity of the season. Of course, we would be pro gingerbread house kit, but here are a couple of reasons why starting from scratch is better:

• Pre-built kits often come with parts broken or missing
• Pre-baked kits come with ingredients that may not be quality, especially the dough and the icing.
• Gingerbread, the ultimate Christmas classic dessert, deserves to be made, and the house is built using the classic, traditional method.

Baking and decorating a gingerbread house is our favorite holiday tradition. If you're a fan of gingerbread and looking for a simpler way to make gingerbread houses, we highly recommend using a kit. They include everything you need to make gingerbread dough and decorate the house. All you need is a couple of common household items that shouldn't be hard to find in your pantry. Let's talk about what's in a gingerbread kit.

What is in a Gingerbread House kit?

We created our Gingerbread House Kit to simplify baking a classic gingerbread house, so you can spend time with your family and have the process feel fun and creative instead of stressful. A lot of love and dedication went into finding all the right ingredients and materials for your perfect house.

Our kit includes easy-to-follow instructions, a decorating kit, and ingredients for the royal icing and the gingerbread house cookie dough.

For the gingerbread:

Gingerbread Mix: This is the main ingredient for the cookie dough. Our gingerbread mix has resulted from many years of trying and testing different recipes until we got the right one.

Parchment Paper Sheets: The pre-cut parchment paper will be super helpful when you roll out the dough to guide you to the dimensions. It's also used to bake gingerbread pieces.

Here's a baking 'hack' we recently read about.

Instead of chilling, rolling out the sticky dough, and using cookie cutters to form the shapes, the creator suggests baking a cookie bar - sheet - first. Just spread the dough evenly on a cookie sheet - on a full sheet of parchment paper - and bake. Once the cookie bar/sheet is baked, then use cookie cutters to press out the shapes. (We suggest you do this before the bar/sheet has had an opportunity to cool.) Despite pressing out the silhouettes with a cookie cutter post-baking, the edges still seem to be pretty clean and even.

2 Cardboard Rectangle Bases: These sturdy cardboard bases are used to set your house on during assembly, decorating, and holiday display. Perfect to create your holiday tableau around your gingerbread house.

Decorating Kit:

6 gingerbread House Cutter Forms: These can be used to cut out all the gingerbread pieces, as well as to create roof shingles, path stones, and window panes.

Decorating Candies: We included some of our favorite decorating candies for a traditional gingerbread house.

Meringue Powder: You can use this to make your royal icing mix. You can use white icing or add food coloring to create different colored icing. This is used to replace raw egg whites. You can find our royal icing recipe here.

Embossers: These are used to create patterns or textures on the cookie dough, to give the house a more realistic look. Our favorites are cobblestones and diamonds.

Decorating Toolkit: The decorating toolkit includes piping bags and various tips for building your house and decorating with icing.

Food Coloring: The kit includes green food coloring in the decorating tool kit to make green royal icing. It's perfect for adding details such as mistletoe, wreaths, or Christmas trees.

For a detailed unboxing of our Gingerbread House Kit and a full list of what's included, you can go here.

What other ingredients will you need?

While not every single ingredient is included in the kit, the ingredients you will need besides the kit are common pantry items. Nothing will be too difficult to find!

You will need:

Shortening: Shortening is better for gingerbread to prevent the cookie from being too flat. It adds flavor and texture to the dough. You can read our blog about shortening vs. butter here.

Granulated Sugar

Unsulphured Molasses: Unsulphured molasses is better for gingerbread because it brings out the flavor of the spices and better complements the other ingredients. Unsulphured molasses comes from matured sugar cane and does not have added sulfur. (Read our blog post on molasses!)

1 Large Egg

Apple Cider Vinegar

Flour (for dusting)

Powdered Sugar

What Kitchenware will you need?

The best part of it all is you don't need to have professional baking equipment! The kitchenware you will need to make the dough, bake it and decorate it is mostly included in the kit. The rest is common items you will find in your own kitchen.

You will need:

• Stand or Hand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
• Baking Sheet
• Rolling Pin
• Wax Paper and Plastic Wrap
• Spatula
• Gallon-sized Food Storage Bag
• Tall Drinking Glass
• Storage Container with Lid

Is a gingerbread house easy to assemble?

The gingerbread pieces are super easy to assemble. It's a basic assembly process. You just have to pipe icing to the cardboard base. And then place the side wall pieces on the base to form the walls of the house. Where the wall meets the end panel, pipe more icing to 'glue' it together. Hold the pieces together with your hands until they set and then support with some soup cans while the royal icing dries. Next, pipe icing to the gables and place the roof pieces.

You can assemble the house first and let the icing dry before decorating, or you can decorate first. Once the decorations are dry, you can assemble the house. Ginger's Breadboys recommends the latter.

What is the best gingerbread house kit?

For many years, we have tried to find the best gingerbread mix to create delicious cookie dough for the best gingerbread house kit. We tried and tested many gingerbread recipes until we finally got them right.

We believe we have the best gingerbread house kit not only because we have included an amazing gingerbread house recipe but also because we included everything you might need. We included candy for decorating and basic decorating tools, including cookie cutters, piping bags and piping tips, and green food coloring for the royal icing.

Where is the best place to buy a gingerbread house kit?

You can buy our kits online here. Or you can purchase them at one of our retail partners.

Where can I find Gluten-Free Gingerbread House kits?

Ginger's Breadboyssells gluten-free gingerbread cookie kits. While we don't currently carry gluten-free house kits, we are happy to switch out the flour for gluten free when you order. You can then decorate the house with your favorite gluten-free types of candy! Purchase online here.

If you would like to have the gluten free mix in your gingerbread house kit, please make a note when purchasing and we will replace the regular mix with gluten free. Or use our contact form to request the switch.

Gingerbread kits can make baking a gingerbread house so much easier and simpler by giving you the tools and ingredients you need for baking and decorating a beautiful gingerbread house.