Elf Gingerbread House: Easy DIY for Beginners

Gingerbread Architect: Gingerbread-By-Design

Gingerbread Designer: Loreta Wilson

Elf Gingerbread House

The Elf Gingerbread House was created when I needed a quick and easy gingerbread house for a gingerbread party/fellowship at a local church. Most of the participants were very new at gingerbread house decorating, and many had never used a pastry bag!

The approximate footprint/size of this house is 6.5" wide x 4" deep x 8" tall.

The Elf Gingerbread House is great for beginners. The house has a large enough roof and a good size front-gable wall, both allowing for fun gingerbread house decorating. The Elf Gingerbread House is also a breeze to roll, cut, bake and assemble - especially when many are needed for a gingerbread house decorating party.

For the base, since this house is small, I was able to purchase flat 12" square pieces of cardboard. This allowed plenty of yard to decorate.

Gingerbread House Architectural Style

The Architectural inspiration for this gingerbread house is the Folk Gable-Front Traditional style home, with a normal pitched open gable roof, and a chimney on the roof ridge.

This style of home flourished across America with the expansion of the railroads. Original folk houses built with logs, sod, or heavy frames were being abandoned for folk houses constructed with wood braced frames covered with wood sheathing.

Gingerbread House Special Design Elements

How-To instructions for special design elements can be found on the Gingerbread-By-Design Blog. I used the following special design element for the Elf Gingerbread House:

Bushes

Gingerbread House Decorating Candy

I used the following candy to decorate the Elf Gingerbread House:

Walls: broken Necco candy
Roof: Peppermint star candy; Red-hot cinnamon candy
Chimney: broken Necco candy
Window Trim: pink Jelly Beans
Front Door: Wafer cookie, mini-candy canes
Front Walkway: white Jelly Beans; Peppermint red/green striped candy; mini-marshmallows
Bushes: Marshmallow cereal treats
Grass/Snow: Shredded coconut
Food Coloring: Red, Green
Sanding Sugar: Green

Gingerbread House Templates

Download e-Template

Download the FREE e-Template to your electronic device, print on your printer, cut-out the template pieces, cut your pieces from gingerbread dough, bake, and assemble per the instructions provided. All templates are full-size and ready to use. No enlarging required.

Fairy Gingerbread House e-Template

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Pre-Printed and Shipped Template

Pre-printed templates are also available. These templates are pre-printed for you to then cut-out the template pieces, cut your pieces from gingerbread dough, bake, and assemble per the instructions provided. The pre-printed template packet includes: