Gingerbread House Cookie Decorating Board
It’s gingerbread house season around here! Let’s continue the Christmas fun with a delicious and festive holiday activity… a Gingerbread House Cookie Decorating Board!
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While I will always love making our graham cracker gingerbread houses and hosting our annual gingerbread house party, I also *love* the idea of decorating gingerbread house shaped cookies!
Gingerbread House Cookie Decorating Board
I love dessert boards, charcuterie boards, grazing boards you name it! And a Christmas one? Yes, please! Gingerbread house cookies, fluffy royal icing and all the sweet candies for decorating!
Let’s go over things you’ll need to make your own gingerbread house cookie board…read on for tips like the best cookie dough, icing tips, candies and more…
Helpful Tools
Gingerbread House Cookie Cutters
HOUSE COOKIE CUTTERS: The main cookie cutter size (for the large gingerbread houses) was this one here! I also have an old small house cutter I used for the smaller houses, but this set has lots of sizes!
DOOR SHAPE CUTTERS: Then I used the door shape from this cookie cutter set to make the doors. It appears to be sold out, but you can find a door shape from lots of cookie cutter sets (like this one). Or just pipe a door with icing.
WINDOW CUTTERS: For the little round window, I used the back of a piping tip! You could use a little star shape or any small round cutter. Or just pipe a window with icing and don’t worry about it having a “cut out” shape! It’ll still look super cute.
Gingerbread House Cookie Dough
You want to make sure use a dough that doesn’t spread a lot when baking. That way your house will still be a house shape (and door shape, etc) after it’s baked.
I used my recipe for Gingerbread Cookies to make these! Now it’s not ooey gooey gingerbread cookie, of course (try my molasses cookie for a chewy holiday cookie), but it doesn’t spread when baking, that’s KEY!
Can I use sugar cookie dough instead of gingerbread?
Of COURSE! They’ll still be cute little house shapes. Just be sure to use a sugar cookie dough recipe designed for cut-out cookies, so it doesn’t spread too much while baking.
Icing for Gingerbread House Cookies
I made these gingerbread house cookies to look similar to our gingerbread houses, with the fluffy icing edges! I used the same gingerbread house royal icing recipe that I use for my houses.
My royal icing recipe is perfect for piping little ruffled edges on these cookies! Now, it does get hard like most royal icings and if you’d rather use a traditional buttercream icing, you definitely can do that.
Keep in mind, buttercream won’t harden up so don’t stack them if you use a buttercream icing. As long as it’s thick enough, it will pipe out the same fluffy edges!
I used a small open star tip from Wilton. #18 or #16 will work, this set here is great! If you have a bunch of piping tips like I do, just look for any small star one to create the same look.
I colored some of the royal icing with gel colors to make a soft light pink icing. You can make any color you want! Or you can just use white.
HELPFUL TIPS
- Cut up larger candies like chewy fruit slices, candy canes or gumdrops to make smaller for your gingerbread house cookies.
- Hosting a party? Surround your board with these twinkle lights (my favorite) for a festive touch! Tuck in fresh rosemary sprigs too!
- Mini marshmallows are perfect, but you can also find fun striped marshmallows for extra pizzazz! Cut them down to make smaller.
I hope you’ll give this gingerbread house cookie decorating board a try this season if you need a Christmas party activity!
Gingerbread House Cookie Board
Ingredients
- 12 Gingerbread House Cookies - (make more or less, depending on size of cookie cutters)
- 2 cups Royal Icing - (or equivalent buttercream frosting)
- Sprinkles
- Gum Drops - (can cut in half to make smaller)
- Peppermints
- Jelly Beans
- Red Hot Candies
- M&Ms - (or other chocolate coated candies like Sixlets)
- Mini Marshmallows
- Candy Fruit Slices
- Candy Pearls
- Mini Candy Canes
- tiny ribbons - Be sure to remove before eating, for decorative finish only.
Instructions
- Bake gingerbread house shaped cookies (can make all one size or a variety of sizes depending on your cutter shapes). Allow to cool (can make in advance).
- If you want to decorate the edges of the gingerbread houses in advance, use a small fluted piping tip and a decorator tool (or piping bag) to add ruffled edges to the cookies.
- On a large board or tray, add several small bowls filled with royal icing. You can use food coloring to color the royal icing or leave white.
- Lay out the gingerbread house cookies.
- Fill spaces with little bowls of sprinkles, holiday candies, gumdrops, marshmallows, peppermints, candy canes, etc.
- Optional: For a festive garnish, tuck sprigs of fresh rosemary around the edges of the board and loosely wrap twinkle lights around the board. If adding any bows, be sure guests know they're not edible but a pretty finish to the cookie, can also wrap finished cookies in little bags with bows for gifting or carrying home!
Notes
You might also love this other Christmas dessert board idea for a Hot Cocoa Charcuterie Board! Tis the season! This is a perfect idea for a Movie Night!
Free Printable Gingerbread House Coloring Pages
More Gingerbread House Ideas
Tis the season for gingerbread houses! Check out some of our favorite gingerbread house ideas below!
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