Gingerbread Birdhouse
We present to you our own gingerbread birdhouse, completed just in time for Christmas day. The design was inspired by a wee birdie, a lovely little lovebird, who recently adopted us.
- Prep time
- 30 min
- Cook time
- 13 min
- Yield
- 20 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- bird cookie cutter
- circle cookie cutter
- 1 cup butter, 226g
- 1 cup sugar, 200g
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup maple syrup or golden syrup, 160g
- 4 1/2 cup all purpose flour, 562g
- 3 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 roll parchment paper
Instructions
- 1
Make Gingerbread Dough: Beat butter until fluffy, then add sugar and beat in til smooth. Add egg and beat in. Add maple syrup and mix in.
- 2
Sift flour with ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, cardamom. Now add the 1/4 of the dry ingredients into butter mixture and mix until combined. Repeat until all the dry ingredients are just incorporated and a dough is formed.
- 3
Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 5 hours.
- 4
Download our gingerbread birdhouse templates, click here for Template I, Template II, Template III. Print out and cut the birdhouse template pieces out of the paper.
- 5
Preheat oven to 350ºF (175ºC).
- 6
Roll out a piece of dough to 1/4 inch thickness between two pieces of parchment paper, one below and one on top.
- 7
Place template cutouts on top of the parchment covered rolled out dough, leaving 1/2 inch spacing between shapes. Use a sharp knife to cut along template edges. Don't move the shapes after you cut.
- 8
Remove paper template shapes and peel off top parchment paper, leaving the bottom parchment paper in place. Remove excess dough.
- 9
Lift the whole thing, cookie cutouts and bottom parchment and place whole thing onto baking sheet.
- 10
Bake for 13 mins at 350ºF (175ºC) or until the gingerbread is just darkened at the edges. Remove and let cool completely before building the gingerbread house.
- 11
Build the Gingerbread Birdhouse: Pipe icing decorations on walls, roof, clock, balconies, etc. Let dry completely.
- 12
Place two walls onto the base and use icing to glue together at corner and bottom. Support walls while icing is drying. Use a fan to speed up drying time.
- 13
Glue together all parts of the house. Hold the pieces as needed to allow icing to dry enough to hold together.
- 14
Decorate with candies. as desired, using royal icing as glue.