With these handy instructions from the lovely Erin Pracy, you can create everything you need for making a mini-gingerbread house kit – so all the kit recipient need do is take the bits and pieces and glue them together with a few dabs of royal icing. Oh, and gobble it down, of course. Scroll down to check it out!

INGREDIENTS:

For the gingerbread:

125g butter, at room temperature
110g brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2/3 cup golden syrup
3 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
400g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the kits:

sprinkles, cachous or sanding sugar
3 small glass bottles with cork lids
3 small kraft doughnut boxes
twine for wrapping

Note: Makes three kits.

METHOD:

To make the gingerbread:

1. Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on a medium speed for one minute.

2. With the motor running, add the brown sugar and golden syrup and mix until combined.

3. Add the egg yolk and continue to mix until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl if needed.

4. Gradually add the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda and mix until a dough forms.

5. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of two hours.

6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and roll the chilled dough between two sheets of baking paper until the dough is approximately 3mm thick.

7. Remove the top sheet of baking paper and cut the dough into 4cm by 6cm rectangles, leaving the slab of rectangles joined. (You could really choose any size of rectangle here, but you’ll end up with smaller houses.)

8. Place the baking paper with the cut rectangles onto a baking tray. There’s no need to separate the rectangles – you’ll cut them again after baking and they’ll separate easily.

9. Bake the rectangles for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Re-cut the lines and allow the cookies to cool completely.

To assemble the houses:

1. The recipient of your gingerbread house kit will need to make a small batch of royal icing to construct their house.

2. Take two biscuits and pipe some icing on the inside of the short edge of one rectangle. Attach the outer short edge of another rectangle at this spot.

3. Repeat with another two biscuits and allow to dry.

4. Join both L shape walls at the remaining short edges with the icing and allow to dry.

5. To attach the roof, pipe some icing along the top of two opposing walls. Take the two remaining biscuits and pipe along one of the long edges.

6. Match long edges of walls with the long edges of the roof and allow to dry.

7. Decorate with remaining royal icing and sprinkles.

For more yummy stuff by Erin swing over here.