Haunted Gingerbread House Ideas

Happy Halloween!

My mom loves decorating gingerbread houses. She does one at Christmas and one for Halloween. Last Christmas I did my own gingerbread house and couldn't believe how much fun I had with it. This fall, I did my very first haunted gingerbread house. It was more fun than the Christmas gingerbread house. Now, I don't bake my own gingerbread. One day maybe. For now, I buy the kit at Target. It comes with white, green, and black icing; a gingerbread tombstone; candy corn; candy bats; candy skulls; little candy balls; and a gummy witch's head. I went out and bought more candy for decorating: M&M's, chocolate Twizzlers, fruit slices, extra candy corn, Oreos, pumpkin marshmallows, some Halloween sprinkles, and Wilton Black Gel, and Wilton Red Gel.

Target Kit

The haunted house came in pieces so I asked Eric to put the house together for me since he has more patience for those types of things than me. Wilson kept him company. Now, I have to admit that I wasn't thrilled with the icing that came with the kit. It didn't hold the greatest.

I covered the bottom cardboard in green royal icing I made. The roof and front path are autumn M&Ms. I lined and filled in the windows and door with Wilton gels. The bricks are outlined in neon green royal frosting and filled in with more red gel.

 In the window you see little ghost sprinkles. I used a toothpick and black gel to draw on faces. The grave is crushed Oreo cookies. In the corner is a chocolate Twizzler tree. They are super easy to make. Just cut the candy along the grooves with a pair of scissors. However, if you make the branches too long, they droop.

The witch is my favorite part of the haunted gingerbread house. 

Her head came with the kit. I then used purple/grape fruit slices for her body and arms. Though sticky, you can manipulate gel kind of like molding chocolate. I used green/lime fruit slices for her hands. The broom is made out of a yellow/lemon fruit slice and a piece of Twizzler. 

The jack o' lantern is an adaptation of this Pillsbury recipe.

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups white chocolate chips
16-oz can orange Halloween frosting
small pieces of chocolate Twizzlers


Directions:
In a saucepan, melt the white chocolate chips over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in frosting. Refrigerate for approximately 1 hour.

Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Shape the chocolate mixture into falls. Use a toothpick to make a groves in the pumpkin or to carve a face. Insert a piece of Twizzler in the top of each pumpkin as the stem.

I was working with odds and ends (a handful of leftover chips, a little bit of leftover frosting) so my pumpkins didn't come out as nice as they could have. I carved faces in the pumpkins then filled the features in with black gel. I also added a green frosting leaf on top.

Side

Side

Back

 

On the back of the house I molded a ghost out of the cream filling from the Oreos I used to make the grave in the front of the house. I used the black gel to draw on the face.

I also attempted to make a second kind of pumpkin. With more practice I think they could come really cool. Eric made a snowman out of marshmallows for my Christmas gingerbread house. I used the same idea to make these out of orange marshmallows. If you pull on marshmallow like taffy, it turns into a very sticky, malleable substance. So I pulled on the marshmallow, rolled it into balls then froze it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. I then rolled them in orange sugar and stuck a piece of Twizzler in the top. Mine turned out pretty lumpy. I had been working on my house for 6 hours. I was tired and didn't have the patience to make better pumpkins. Next year they'll be better, I promise.

I have a bit of an announcement. This has been an amazing autumn. Beautiful weather, colorful foliage, delicious food . . . but what really made it amazing was that Eric and I got engaged! A fall engagement and hopefully a fall wedding next year.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

For more autumn recipes, click here.