Gingerbread Architect: Gingerbread-By-Design (Loreta Wilson)
Gingerbread Designer: Loreta Wilson
Heidi's Haunted Gingerbread House
While I love, love, LOVE the splendor of a white Christmas, and all that goes with it... Santa, reindeer, red and green everything, and WHITE snow that just warms my heart... there is something to be said about decorating a gingerbread house for Halloween.
Instead of light, joyous, festive and PERFECTION for Christmas, the look for a Halloween house is dark, haunted, ghostly... and FALLING APART. If you have never created a Halloween gingerbread house, certainly give it a try this next Halloween to add to your seasonal decorations!
Heidi's Haunted House came to be when a friend of mine (Heidi) tagged me on this picture on Social Media... claiming this house would make a fantastic haunted gingerbread house. I couldn't agree more! So off I went to create the template for this awesome dilapidated, probably haunted, soon to be covered in candy....house!
The finished size for this house is 14” wide x 15” deep x 16” tall (not including room for yard, landscaping, etc). This house presents well on a large base.
For the first time ever, Graham Crackers were used for siding, instead of painting the house with frosting. Since I live in the humid/damp Pacific Northwest, I usually frost all sides of my wall and roof pieces to prevent moisture soaking into the gingerbread and softening the piece.
Three different brands of Graham Crackers were used in order to achieve the different coloring, simulating the color variation common in bricks. For the cute corner bricks, Honey Maid Lil Squares were used. Wasa Crispbread was used for the roofing which provided nice texture to the house.
I decided to highlight the tower by using Harvest Blend M&M candy with light brown colored frosting as mortar. Caramel Candy Corn was used to trim out the top of the windows, and fun Peep ghosts throughout the display!
I wanted to make an assortment of trees, so I frosted several ice cream cones and rolled in a variety of sprinkles or attached candy.
Most of the pictures include black wrought iron... one of my favorite special design elements that I now use almost anywhere I can! I learned this method several years ago, and while not perfect I am able to produce a nice consistent rounded effect to mimic metal. Below are the step-by-step directions.
Finished pictures of Heidi's Haunted House. For whatever reason I decided to not use poured sugar in the windows and instead frosted with yellow or black frosting, giving the house a different look than my typical house. I kind of like the look.
Gingerbread House Architectural Style
The Architectural inspiration for this gingerbread house is the Romantic Italianate Tower style, with a normal pitched cross gable roof with a square tower, which is often considered a characteristic of an Italian Villa.
Windows in this style of home are commonly two-paned, tall, narrow, and arched, with elaborate crowns. Also common to this style of home are two-story polygonal bay windows to allow more interior light, as well as paired windows.
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 this specific gingerbread house:
Gingerbread House DecoratingGingerbread House Candy
Doesn't everybody have a box of left-over candy stored in their closet, at all times? I'm always scoping-out the perfect candy for my next gingerbread creation!
Candy used for this gingerbread house:
Tower: Harvest Blend M&M candy
Walls: Graham Crackers (multiple brands to obtain different colors and textures)
Wall corners: Honey Maid Lil Squares
Front Door: Chocolate candy bar
Above Windows: Caramel Candy Corn
Roof shingles: Wasa Crispbread
Ground cover dirt: Chocolate Fudge frosting
Front Walkway: Rye Crackers
Fence Posts: Rice cereal, Marshmallows, Yellow Gum Drops, Black Dragees
Bushes: Flake cereal and Marshmallows
Pumpkins: Candy Corn Pumpkins
Door Mat: Chocolate cookie
Trees: Ice-Cream Cones; Assorted small candy (assorted candy corn, pixies, Halloween sprinkles, gum drops, sanding sugar / course sugar crystals)
Peep ghosts
Brown, orange, black, and green food coloring
Gingerbread House Templates
Download e-Template
Download the 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.
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:
Template printed on 67lb card stock
Supply and Candy List
Recipes, including number of batches needed
Rolling, Cutting, and Baking instructions
Assembly instructions with step-by-step pictures
Decorating suggestions, including design elements utilized
Handy ziplock storage bag to store your templates
All templates are full-size and ready to use. No enlarging required.
Gingerbread-By-Design provides The Best Gingerbread Templates! View the entire collection here!
Gingerbread House Pictures
More pictures of Heidi's Gingerbread House are available at these locations:
Gingerbread-By-Design Photo Album
Flickr Photo Album
Did you make this gingerbread house and want to share your pictures? Click here to upload your pictures to the Gingerbread-By-Design Photo Album!
