Make your own gingerbread house

Get your kids together and have some fun making one of these enchantingly delicious gingerbread houses. They can be made in just under an hour and are extremely fun to build! Ensure you have all of the ingredients required before you begin cooking to avoid disappointment!

Required ingredients for a gingerbread house
750g plain flour
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. ground allspice
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. salt
225g butter
115g brown sugar
350g black treacle
500g icing mix

Start making your gingerbread house
Once you have all of your ingredients weighed out correctly, preheat your oven to 180°C/gas 4. Take your flour, spices and baking powder and sift all into a large bowl. Gently heat the butter, sugar, treacle and the salt on a pan. Mix the heated ingredients together and add to the bowl of sifted flour, spices and baking powder. Once done, this should form a dough. Roll the dough out onto a floured surface to about 5mm thick. Now is the part to use your imagination! Cut out four walls, some roof panels and a front door (the children should be able to help with this). It is also a good idea to collect some hard-boiled sweets to decorate your gingerbread house with. Once you have shaped your gingerbread house, lay the pieces on a baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes. Just before they are ready to be removed, add some water to the icing mix and take your gingerbread pieces out to cool. Use a piping bag to squeeze the icing out onto the gingerbread pieces, which will help to stick it together. The icing can also be used to decorate the house with sweets. You should have had some dough left over to make gingerbread men with, allow your children to have fun with these as little snacks! Your gingerbread house should now be complete! Once cooled it is good to eat and is a delicious snack day or night.