DIY Haunted Gingerbread House (The Ultimate Halloween Centerpiece!)
An elaborate and festive recipe for creating a completely edible ‘Haunted Gingerbread House,’ perfect as a showstopper centerpiece for a Halloween party. The project begins with a from-scratch, spiced gingerbread cookie dough, which is cut using a template and baked to form the walls and roof of the house. The house is then assembled using melted candy wafers as ‘glue’ and placed on a landscape of ‘dirt’ made from crushed chocolate cookies. The detailed spooky decorations are all homemade, including cereal ‘roof tiles,’ candy ‘windows’ and a ‘door,’ green candy ‘monster arms,’ candy ‘pumpkins,’ chocolate ‘trees,’ a pretzel ‘ladder,’ and a ‘graveyard’ made from chocolate bars.
Ingredients
- For the Gingerbread Cookie Dough:
- 3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- For Assembly & Decorations:
- 12 ounces white candy melting wafers
- 1 cup ready-made chocolate frosting
- 12 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed
- 2 cups woven corn cereal squares
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 12 ounces black candy melting wafers
- Candy buttons and candy eyeballs
- Black food color marker
- 3 ounces green candy melting wafers & 1/4 cup green sanding sugar
- 3 ounces orange candy melting wafers
- Chocolate sprinkles, chocolate chews, gumballs
- 3 chocolate-filled rolled wafer cookies & black sanding sugar
- 4 pretzel sticks
- 3 chocolate snack cake cupcakes
- 2 mini break-apart chocolate bars
Instructions
- Make and Bake the Gingerbread: Make a spiced gingerbread dough and chill for 30 minutes. Roll the dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a printed template, cut out the shapes for the house walls and roof. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes. While still warm, re-cut the shapes using the templates for clean edges. Let cool completely.
- Assemble the House: Melt the white candy wafers. Use the melted candy as ‘glue’ to assemble the four walls of the house on a large cake board or platter that has been frosted and covered with crushed cookie ‘dirt.’ Let the walls set for 10 minutes.
- Attach the two roof pieces with more melted candy, holding them in place until they set.
- Decorate the House: Coat the corn cereal squares in cocoa powder. Use melted candy to ‘glue’ the cereal squares onto the roof in overlapping rows to create ’tiles.’
- Make the windows and door by melting black candy wafers and piping them into shapes on parchment paper, following a template. Attach them to the house with more melted candy. Create fanged details on the door with white melted candy.
- Create ‘monster arms’ from melted green candy and decorate with sanding sugar and chocolate sprinkle ‘claws.’ Attach them to the sides of the house.
- Create ‘boards’ for the windows from flattened chocolate chews.
- Create the Landscape: Make ‘pumpkins’ by dipping gumballs in melted orange candy. Make ‘scary trees’ by covering rolled wafer cookies in melted black candy and black sanding sugar; stand them up in upside-down snack cakes. Make ‘tombstones’ from pieces of a chocolate bar set in dabs of frosting. Arrange all decorations around the house.
- Add final details like piped spiderwebs and drawn-on cracks with a food color marker.
Notes
- Special Equipment: This project requires a 14-inch cake board, disposable piping bags, and printable templates for the house pieces.
- This is a large, multi-day edible craft project that requires significant time for assembly and for the various candy components to set.
- Re-cutting the gingerbread pieces while they are still warm is a key professional tip that ensures all the pieces will fit together perfectly.
- Melted candy wafers are the primary ‘glue’ used for all assembly and decoration.
Find it online: https://www.eatswithsoul.com/haunted-gingerbread-house-terpiece/