Ahh yes, tis' the season, folks! Gather round the fire (or, as we in South Florida do, around the AC) and get crafty with Bulk Candy Store's own guide to a show-stopping, gorgeous, and GLORIOUS gingerbread house!
Starting Off
Well, first you're obviously going to need a gingerbread house! They come pre-assembled or in individual pieces, it's up to you how you want to do it! You can usually find them at your local grocery store or even online. OR if you are really a go-getter and master baker, you can bake your own gingerbread walls, roof, etc. and make your house completely from scratch. You will also want to consider getting a tray or plate, like we did, to make your own snowy front lawn!
Next, if your gingerbread house doesn't come with icing, make sure you grab some! Icing can be used to hold the individual walls and roof together or to line the roofs and walls to make them pop! We decided to use a kit with individual walls and a roof to put together ourselves, and we "glued" everything together with icing. You'll just need it in a thin piping bag if it isn't in one already :)
Candy Selections!
So you definitely have options when it comes to the candy you choose for your house, based on the theme, color scheme, etc. But here are our top picks for a spectacular scene! We used these to decorate the house itself and add to our adorable front lawn.
- Hershey's Kisses
- Milk, dark, caramel, you choose! Bulk Candy Store has them all!
- Candy Canes
- Make sure you get these smaller ones so they can fit on your house!
- Peppermints
- A classic holiday candy you will definitely need! We have all kinds of flavors and colors, so you take your pick! We also have these ADORABLE Christmas-themed ones, so I wanted to use these instead!
- Christmas Tree Candy
- You need some festive decor for your front lawn! We at Bulk Candy Store have a range of selections for you, including gummi Christmas trees, and pretzel Christmas trees. We also have mixed bags of both Christmas tree candies AND snowmen candies so you can add extra decoration!
- Sprinkles
- Add a pop of color to your house with colored sprinkles, such as these cute little Christmas Nonpareils!
Of course, you can change up the colors to make your house Hanukkah or Kwanza themed! We have a HUUUGE selection of Hanukkah candies to choose from as well!
Building the House
Aaaand we're off!
First, as per the gingerbread house kit instructions, we crushed up some butterscotch candies (which you can also find on our site!) and sprinkled in the crushed butterscotch into the cut-out windows and door. You can do this with any gingerbread house with cut-outs for windows, but the particular kit we used came with instructions to do this.
Then, we baked the front wall to melt the candy and create "glass" windows and a "glass" front door. When it cooled, we used the icing that came with the kit to "glue" together all the walls and the roof!
Once the house was put together and dried, it was time to start the decorating (AKA the most fun part!)
Decorating
To start off, we went in with the icing to make spectacular roof shingles. I myself was not very good at it, so my colleague had to take over that part...
Then, we lined the juncture between the walls and the roof with Hershey's Kisses to make our house a little bit 3D! This was personally my favorite piece of decor. Next, we added a Christmas-themed mint centerpiece to the front of the house above the candy wreath and garlands that came with the kit. It was super cute!
Next, here came what was personally my faaaavorite part! We added our little Christmas Nonpareils to our roof shingles to make our house as festive as possible AND we stuck candy canes next to the door to make the ultimate Christmas door handles! We then iced the window shutters to make a real kind of snowy look with snow dripping off the house, and then we added adorable Christmas trees from our Sweetly Sour Trees & Snowmen Gummi bag! We topped our trees with golden candy balls from the gingerbread house kit.
Front Lawn
Our gingerbread house wouldn't be complete without a front lawn! This is where we really got our house to shine! Firstly, we used shredded coconut flakes to make the "snow" in front of the house. Make sure you cover the whole of the surface your house is going on top of (such as a baking tray, Christmas plate, etc.) to create a more realistic effect!
We then made our fence! The fence pieces came with the kit we used but you could also make your own. We decorated the top of each fence piece with icing to make "dripping snow" and sprinkled our snow with Christmas nonpareils! We put a gummi Christmas tree and gummi snowman against each front-facing fence to make a fabulously festive front lawn!
Our kit also came with giant candy Christmas trees, so we included those on either side of the lawn as well to amp it up just a bit more!
The Finished Product
The final piece of the puzzle was to add our light! We took a tea light and slid it through a hole in the back of the gingerbread house to create an effect of a burning fireplace behind the glass windows and door as the family inside snuggled up and drank hot cocoa.
So, without further ado...HERE IT IS!!!
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And just like that, you've created the best Gingerbread house ever! This one was a whole lotta fun, so we're sure you're bound to enjoy every moment as we did, and maybe even sneak a few gummies and Hershey's Kisses here and there ;D
We hope you had as much fun as we did making this gingerbread house! Let us know how it went in the comments down below!