Iced gingerbread house

Melt the butter, sugar and syrup. Stir until the mixture cools down. Add the egg. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in a little water and mix in the spices. Add the flour. Form into a dough and leave overnight.

Download the template for the gingerbread house here. Copy the template onto thick cardboard or strong plastic. Set the oven temperature to 175 °C.

Roll out the dough until approx. 3 mm thick on baking parchment. Place the template on the dough and cut out the various sections. Trim away any excess dough. It is easier to cut out windows after piping on icing to mark the windows.

Bake the larger sections in the oven for 10-15 minutes and the smaller sections for 5-7 minutes. Place the template on top of the baked sections and check that the sizes match. Cut the edges to straighten them, if necessary.

When all of the sections have cooled, stick them together using icing. Stick the house sections together, the roof sections together and the pipe sections together. When the icing on the various sections has set, place the roof on the house and then "cement" the pipe on top.

Icing for the gingerbread house
1 egg white
2 ml (half a small teaspoon) spirit vinegar
240 g Dansukker Icing Sugar

Using an electric whisk, beat all the ingredients into a thick mixture. Use the icing sugar to cement the joins and decorate the gingerbread house.