Halloween Gingerbread House

Last Updated August 15th, 2023 at 01:20 am by Lisa

Decorate a spooky cute Halloween Gingerbread House with an easy-to-find premade kit. Use all kinds of candies in different ways, add your own creative details, and try new design ideas with Halloween candy and royal icing.

Haunted gingerbread houses are a whimsical table centerpiece for your Halloween party or to enjoy in your home all spooky season. After all, it is all about the candy...

Haunted Cookie House Decorating Kits

Be sure to watch the video in the recipe card below for more ideas!

Halloween haunted cookie house kits are available everywhere now, which include house pieces, royal icing, and some candy decorations. I found my Halloween Cookie Kit at TJ Max Homegoods, made by The Bakery Bling company and they are also available on Amazon.

Most cookie kits come with royal icing, but just in case, I have recipes for you to make extra white, black, orange, etc. royal icing, which is a super fun way to create your own designs and details.

PRO TIPS: Lay the gingerbread house pieces on parchment-lined trays or plates. Decorate the pieces of your house first using royal icing and sprinkles, and let them dry overnight. Assemble the next day, and add the final spooky details!

Decorating A Halloween Gingerbread House

1. Unpack the pieces, and lay them out. Most kits will have a front, back, two side pieces, and 2 roof pieces. Take a look at them, any rough edges can be smoothed out with your fingertips, and check for cracks, those can be fixed with construction royal icing.
2. Grab a piece of paper and take some notes on the designs you really want, and some things you want to try!
3. Lay each of the pieces in order to decorate. My kit had two roof pieces with a diamond pattern embossed on them, so I piped black royal icing in those groves, then sprinkled yellow and orange jimmies. I did this over a piece of parchment paper to catch the extra sprinkles and reuse them.
4. Knead the royal icing really well that should come in your kit, it works great at room temperature.
5. Make some more of your own royal icing, which dries really hard for construction purposes. You can also add a color you like.
6. If you are not going to eat the Halloween gingerbread house, use a glue gun to hold the pieces together. Once the pieces are decorated and dry, which takes about 8 hours, simply glue them together! That is what I did, and it was SO much easier, but with kids, they might want to eat it.
7. You can buy some buttercream icing in a tube from the grocery store, but this would be for decorating accents, not to hold or glue the house together.

Haunted Gingerbread House Decorating Ideas

Haunted Halloween Gingerbread House Base

I decided to put my house on a ceramic square plate. A piece of cardboard might work if it is sturdy enough. I glued my house onto the plate with hot glue, but I am not eating it plus I am on a diet!

If kids will be eating it, try a strong paper plate or plastic plate, and use construction royal icing.

Halloween "Christmas" Tree

Decorate sugar ice cream cones for Halloween "Christmas" trees with pumpkin presents underneath. Black royal icing or black buttercream will work for this, simply pipe a thick line up and around in a spiral.

Then push on large and small balls of candy or sprinkles. Some orange and black candy bats came in the kit, so I put them on as tree toppers and ornaments. Add more colorful Halloween sprinkles, in orange, purple, and green on the wet frosting, and let it dry before handling.

Cobblestone Path and Porch

To decorate the front and back cobblestone walkway, I love the round black licorice candies from See's candies in Southern California. They are online if you want to take a peek. These are called Black Licorice medallions in their shop. I sprinkled green sanding sugar sprinkled in between the licorice to look like grass. You can also cut pieces of cut black licorice and black icing to make a path.

Criss Cross Roof

Pipe black royal icing from a piping bag in a cross diamond pattern then sprinkle use tiny Jimmie sprinkles for a great effect! Sprinkle on a piece of parchment paper, then pour unused sprinkles back into the container.

Or tile the roof with mini shredded wheat cereal pieces, graham cracker pieces, mini chocolate bars, or other candy like candy corn.

Roof Line

Trim licorice pieces to cover the gap in the roof line and base of the house. Use scissors to cut the black licorice pieces.

House Windows

For the house shutters, black licorice medallions were just right with black store-bought black buttercream frosting and little orange bat candies as accents. For the window boxes, I placed a piece of black licorice. Piped black icing on the window panes and sprinkled sparkling black sugar.

These white bone gummies came in a box of candy I found at Homegoods TJ Maxx. They worked so well framing the windows and front door.

Front Door Pumpkin Topiaries

Use white frosting or royal icing, and stick a Brach's Mellocream pumpkin on top of an orange and white mint from See's candies. Then attach the candy eyes with white icing.

Make Chocolate Tombstones

Take a look at my Halloween Graveyard Cake for all kinds of decoration tips for making tombstones, fences, trees, gates, and more! Or my Halloween Cupcakes, which have little white chocolate bones and tons of other ideas you could put on your gingerbread house.

Pumpkin Patch

Surround your house with cookie dirt, made from crushed chocolate wafers or Oreo cookies.

Make a pumpkin patch with crushed Oreos or graham crackers for the dirt, and Mellowcream pumpkin with green icing as the vines and stems. Make a candy corn fence with the white points sticking up.

Window Shutters

Put crooked pieces of Oreo cookies and cream candy bars on as the shutters, and pipe on thin black cobwebs!

Candy Shopping List & Decorating Ideas

• Brach's Mellocream pumpkins
• Red Vine black licorice
• Brach's candy corn
• See's black licorice medallions
• Halloween assorted sprinkles (tree and front of house)
• Sparkling black sugar (window frame accent)
• Sparkling green sugar (grass)

More Things To Decorate Your House

• Halloween m&ms (orange, purple, green)
• gumdrops
• mini shredded wheat cereal
• pretzels
• NECCO wafers

Gingerbread House Tips, Lessons, & Fails

• Wet royal icing won't always hold a candy corn piece once the house is assembled. I learned this the hard way, they kept sliding and then falling off. The best thing is to let the icing dry a while then try to stick on heavier pieces of candy, in some cases, they are just too heavy to stick. You can add heavier pieces of candy while the pieces are flat, let them dry, then assemble them, this works really well!
• Patience is the hardest part of making a gingerbread house. In all the years of making them, no two are ever the same. And one thing to remember is that it's your house! Make it the way you want to, and take your time. Don't be rushed. Make a good cup of coffee, relax, and create. Then let the pieces dry before assembling-that is my biggest tip.

How To Make & Decorate With Royal Icing

Basic Decorating Royal Icing

• 3 cups powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
• 2 large egg whites at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• optional black, orange, purple, or green food coloring

Construction Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons meringue powder
• ¼ cup water (add more if needed)
• optional black, orange, purple, or green food coloring

Basic Decorating Royal Icing Instructions

1. Mix ingredients well by hand or on medium speed for 5 minutes with a hand mixer. The icing is good for piping, and decorating but not as strong for construction.
2. Store extra icing in a pastry bag or zip-top bag. Or covered in a bowl with plastic wrap. You can make a double batch of this recipe or add coloring like black, orange, purple, or green! This icing is great for piping and flooding, but too thin for "gluing" on candies and holding the house pieces together.

Construction Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder Instructions

1. In a medium mixing bowl, add the egg whites and whip until foamy. Add cream of tartar mix for about 30 more seconds. Add in powdered sugar gradually until completely mixed in, then you can turn the mixer to high speed. Whip about 3-5 minutes until it becomes thick and the royal icing will hold its shape.
2. Then add food coloring if desired. Use this royal icing to hold pieces of your gingerbread house together.

Free Halloween Planner!

A little planning goes a long way, put down all your ideas and things that inspire you in this planner. There are spots for everything from your guest list, to shopping items, ideas for Halloween decorations, how to put a spooky twist on the menu, and more. Happy Halloween!

Download your FREE copy of this planner and get those party plans started today…

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