Leave to cool completely on the trays. The cooled house pieces should be firm and hard to the touch. If still a bit soft, bake for a little longer, taking care not to burn the edges.

Decorating the front can be a little more intricate with edible figures, icing snow, a gingerbread tree and sprinkles to contend with, so if a child is building this house they may need a hand with that bit. USING a knife, cut 6 panels as per the template: 2 x roof, 2 x sides, 2 x ends and place on lightly greased baking trays. Preheat the oven to 190°C, fan 170°C, gas 5. Use a Christmas tree cutter to cut biscuits out of the excess dough – you only need 4 for the house but there'll be enough dough to make at least 30 trees altogether. Put the trees on a separate baking sheet to the house pieces; chill for 30 minutes. Bake the house pieces, in batches, for about 18-20 minutes. Bake the tree biscuits for 10 minutes. Once hardened, use melted pink chocolate to assemble walls of the house. To help support the sides while the chocolate is hardening, use a can or bottle to hold walls upright.

Once you’ve plotted out your shapes, whip up the dough (careful, this stuff is seriously stiff). Then roll it out on a piece of parchment paper to make it easier to transfer to the baking sheet. Place the raw dough on the sheet and lay out your guides on top. We chose a pretty basic gingerbread house shape, but added two bonus triangles to act as structural supports. Sara Chodosh House edging- place a strip of white chocolate on the cake board, and place a silver coca cola ball on top, next to the base of the house. Before you start mixing ingredients, make sure you’ll have enough dough. The Serious Eats recipe makes enough gingerbread for one 11-by-15-inch baking sheet, so get that out now, along with some paper. However, we thought there wasn't quite enough icing to really go to town on the decoration. We'd recommend keeping the pre-made icing for another baking day and making a big batch of your own to ensure you don't run out. Decorate one roof piece: use a knife to spread icing all over the roof, then cover with chocolate buttons. Start from the bottom, then add the buttons in rows that just overlap to look like tiles. Decorate the chimney pieces with icing and hundreds-and-thousands. Wait until the icing is completely dry.

Roof- using white chocolate line roof peak with pink smarties, line edging of roof with rainbow Mike and Ike's. In a decent-sized saucepan, melt the butter along with the sugars, golden syrup or light corn syrup, treacle or molasses, cloves, cinnamon and ground ginger. In a cup dissolve the baking soda in 2 tablespoons of warm water. Take the saucepan off the heat and beat in the eggs, milk and bicarb in its water. Stir in the flour and unsweetened cocoa and beat with a wooden spoon to mix. Fold in the chocolate chips, pour into the lined tin and bake for about 45 minutes until risen and firm. It will be slightly damp underneath the set top and that's the way you want it.When you’ve rested, you’ll be ready to add more creative decorations. Peppermint candies are always festive, as are gumdrops. Inventive bakers can construct piles of logs from Tootsie rolls, pine trees from green icing and upside-down ice cream cones, and snow folks from marshmallows, among other flourishes. Destroy it Similar to the Biscuiteers gingerbread house kit, the house pieces are blank. You're probably best off planning how you want to decorate the house before starting out. Once cold, put the gingerbread in an airtight tin and leave overnight until really crisp – if you decorate the house with icing and sweets too soon, the dough may go soft and the house will not be very stable.