When Kiara decided she wanted to make gingerbread houses with her friend I was less than enthusiastic about the whole thing.

I always assumed they were difficult to make until I googled and they actually assembly wasn’t that difficult, it just needs patience and time.

Step One: I downloaded a template of the pieces we needed – there are templates here. The one I used was actually quiet big. If I do it again with kids I will make them smaller.

Step Two: I used the Golden Cloud cookie mix simply because Kiara didn’t give me much time to prepare and because I trust this recipe mix.

Step Three: You cut out the walls and roof from your template, bake and wait until they have cooled down properly. (If you are doing this with kids I would do this the day before and make extra).

Step Four: Make the royal icing – I used 4 egg whites beaten until nearly stiff and just over 1/2kg of icing sugar. This was enough for 3 houses and for the kids to use to stick their sweets on.

Step Five: Ice an L shape onto your cake board and place the first 2 walls against the icing. If you have someone helping then get them to hold these to walls in place until the icing takes and they stick or prop something against them. Ice another L for the remaining two pieces. Place the third and fourth wall in. Ice along the sides to full in any gaps. (I used a big icing nozzle which wasn’t such a great idea because it wasted a lot of icing. You can even use a plastic bag with the tip cut off.

Step Six: Let that all set for a few minutes before adding the roof. Then ice along the tops of the walls and place the roof pieces on. Ice along the top where the two pieces meet. Leave it for a few minutes to set. (If you are doing this with small kids I suggest assembling the entire house before involving them. It takes time and is boring for them.

Step Seven: Decorate the house with sweets and other decorations. Try choose light decorations for the roof. Kiara used a lot of smarties and the one side of her roof caved in.

Step Eight: ENJOY it

The girls had fun doing this but it was a lot of work – not really hard work but it was pretty labour intensive. Next time I will prepared the pieces the day before and assemble before they get home, then they can just decorate it.