Vegan Gingerbread House

Here’s another festive bake for y’all – my vegan Gingerbread house! This cookie showstopper is packed with spices and festive flavour and will be a guaranteed hit with family and friends over the holiday season.

I did a lot of research for this recipe because even though flavour is important, structural integrity of the cookies is even more so! My recipe contains no funky ingredients or egg replacements so you should almost everything you need in your kitchen already! 

‘There are 3 elements to this recipe: the gingerbread, the royal icing and the construction.

The gingerbread recipe here is absolutely delicious and fairly straightforward to make and use. The cookie dough may feel greasy when you start working with it but don’t worry, this is intentional. A small amount of flour with sop up any excess oil and we actually need it to make the dough flexible enough to roll out and cut. 

My recipe for royal icing below is suitable for icing gingerbread cookies and it’s the “base” recipe for this house. However, you’ll find that you’ll need different consistencies to achieve different effects. Firstly you need the base recipe for drawing. This is what I used for the windows, tiling, Christmas trees and the doors. I then added 1 tbsp extra cornstarch to the royal icing to make it thicker which I then used to pipe the icicles hanging from the gingerbread roof! A thicker batter *can* help stick pieces together too but I prefer to use melted sugar.

The MVP of this gingerbread house is the gorgeous sprinkles that I got from Baking Time Club! You absolutely have to check them out as they are fully vegan and gluten-free! 

What vegan butter to use?

When looking for a vegan butter I always recommend choosing those with at least 75% fat. When it has less than 75% fat, it typically has a higher water content which can disrupt the baking process. Some good vegan butters use complex mixtures of fats and proteins to emulate dairy butter. Look out for ingredients like Shea butter of fava bean protein as these lead to a more flavourful bake.

What ingredients can I substitute?

If you have allergies or don’t have access to any of the ingredients, this recipe is fairly forgiving. Feel free to substitute the golden syrup for any other inverted syrup (corn or glucose). Spices can be freely substituted. You can swap out brown sugar for caster sugar but you will lose that signature molasses flavour of the gingerbread. 

Best way to stick the pieces together?

As mentioned above, it can be done with royal icing. However I recommend using melted sugar because its is rock hard once set and will allow you to pick up and move the gingerbread house around freely. Just take a cup of caster sugar and place it on a hot pan for 5 minutes. Once it starts to melt, stir with a silicone spatula. We are aiming for an amber-coloured liquid sugar. To test if the sugar is ready, drop a small blog in a glass of cold water. It is ready when that blob turns immediately solid on impact. 

How long does the gingerbread house last?

This gingerbread cookie recipe will last for a surprisingly long amount of time. I had this house exposed in my kitchen for a week and it tasted just as good as the day I baked it. I would however advise not keeping it longer than 2-3 days out in the open or 2-3 weeks in an airtight container.

How do you know when the cookies are done?

These cookies only take 10-12 minutes to bake so you might as well sit around and watch them spread! They are ready when the edges start to turn a darker golden brown. It is possible your oven might have heat spots and they will cook unevenly so don’t be afraid to rotate the tray half way through. 

While you’re here, feel free to check out all my biscuit recipes or my aquafaba recipes!

For this recipe you’ll need:

• mixing bowl
• baking tray with parchment

3 from 5 reviews

Vegan Gingerbread House

December 7, 2020

Servings: 16

Prep: 20 min

Cook: 10 min

Total: 2 hr

Difficulty: Medium

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This delicious vegan gingerbread house requires no fussy ingredients and is the perfect showstopper over the holiday season!

By: Project Vegan Baking

Ingredients

• Gingerbread cookies:
• 520g plain flour
• 180g vegan butter
• 160g brown sugar
• 100g golden syrup (or dark corn syrup)
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 4 tsp ground ginger
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Royal icing:
• 60g aquafaba
• 300g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• food colouring (optional)

Directions

• Step 1 Place a saucepan on the stove on a medium heat and add in the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup. Stir until all the sugar has dissolved (the mixture will become glossy and smooth).
• Step 2 In a large mixing bowl, sieve together the remaining dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, spices and salt).
• Step 3 Pour the liquid sugar mix into the dry mix and work with a spoon. The dough will be hot so be careful.
• Step 4 Once it is combined, set it aside for 10 minutes to cool to room temperature.
• Step 5 Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F.
• Step 6 Once it is no longer hot, roll the dough out to 4-6mm thick, depending on how thin you prefer your cookies.
• Step 7 Now cut out 6 pieces of gingerbread for the house (2 side walls, 2 front/back walls and 2 roof pieces). I typically use stencils downloaded from online but if you use a ruler you can make any set you like. I’ll leave my gingerbread house measurements in the post of this recipe. Use any excess gingerbread to make festive trees, chimneys or other characters!
• Step 8 Place these 6 pieces on a baking tray lined with parchment and put them in the freezer to chill for 10 minutes.
• Step 9 Take them out of the freezer and bake for 10-12 minutes. I bake my cookies in multiple batches to reduce a risk of uneven baking. If they spread at all you can use a sharp knife to push or cut the edges afterwards.
• Step 10 Leave the cookies on a rack to cool completely. Cookies typically need a few hours to firm up so don’t try to build the house straight after they have been baked.
• Step 11 Royal icing: Place the aquafaba in a large bowl (or stand mixer) and use an electric whisk on medium speed until foamy soft peaks.
• Step 12 Start spooning in icing sugar until fully incorporated.
• Step 13 Finally add in the vanilla and whisk for a further 1 minute.
• Step 14 Depending on the consistency, you may wish to add more icing sugar to make it more viscous or thin it out with some water. A test to see if it is ready is to agitate the royal icing with a spoon and it should return to a smooth surface after 15 seconds (or with a little shaking of the bowl).
• Step 15 Separate out the icing into different bowls for all the different colours you want. Add the colouring and stir until combined. I use gel colourings because they’re stronger but water-based should be fine here. Place the icings into small piping bags or make your own with parchment paper.
• Step 16 Decorate your gingerbread pieces as you wish before you construct the house.
• Step 17 To construct the gingerbread house, melt a cup of caster sugar in a frying pan on the stove. Keep an eye on the sugar as it slowly turns into an amber liquid. Once it is fully melted, give it a stir around and test to see if it sets hard. A drop of the sugar in a cup of cold water should turn solid. Once ready, use the melted sugar as glue to stick the house together. I picked up whole pieces of the gingerbread, dunked it in the sugar and then held it together for 20 seconds until it set.
• Step 18 Do the finishing touches on the house and serve!