What says festive more than spending the day baking and decorating a home-made gingerbread house? 

You will need: 

For the gingerbread:

600g plain flour 

4 tsp ground ginger 

200g dark muscovado sugar 

250g unsalted butter 

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

7 tbsp golden syrup 

To Decorate: 

500g icing sugar 

2 egg whites 

Mini chocolate fingers 

Selection of sweets 

Step 1: Pre-heat your oven to 200C / Gas mark 6. In a pan, melt together the butter, syrup and sugar. Gently mix the flour, ground ginger and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl, and add into the butter mix. This should form a stuff dough. Add a splash of water to help bind the ingredients together if needed. 

Step 2: Cut out BBC’s goodfoods template (found here). Using a rolling pin, roll a quarter of the dough until it is the thickens of 2 £1 coins. Use the template to cut the gingerbread house shape. You should have 2 side walls, two roof panels and a front and back wall. Use any leftover dough to create mini decorations, such as Christmas trees or snowmen. 

Step 3: Bake all sections for 12 minutes, or until firm. After leaving to cool for a few minutes, trim around the template again to clean up the edges. 

Step 4: In a large bowl, stir together the egg whites and icing sugar. Using a piping bag with a medium nozzle, spoon the mixture into the piping bag and pipe the icing onto the edge of the walls to stick them together. Once all walls are stuck together, place a small bowl inside the four walls and leave for a few hours to completely solidify. 

Step 5: After a few hours, or once the icing mixture is completely dry, remove the bowl and fix the roof panels on using the icing mixture. You may need to hold the roof pieces on for a few minutes. 

Step 6: Decorate! Use the chocolate fingers and selection of sweets to create your own gingerbread house design.