Ingredients

FOR THE GINGERBREAD

• 250g unsalted butter
• 200g dark muscovado sugar
• 7 tbsp golden syrup
• 600g plain flour
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 4 tsp ground ginger

TO DECORATE

• 2 egg whites
• 500g icing sugar , plus extra to dust
• generous selcetion sweets of your choice, choose your own colour theme 

METHOD

1. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. 
2. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into a large bowl, then stir in the butter mixture to make a stiff dough.  
3. Cut out the template. Put a sheet of baking paper on your work surface and roll about one quarter of the dough to the thickness of two £1 coins. 
4. Cut out one of the sections, then slide the gingerbread, still on its baking paper, onto a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, re-rolling the trimmings, until you have two side walls, a front and back wall and two roof panels. 
5. Bake all the sections for 12 mins or until firm and just a little darker at the edges. Leave to cool for a few mins to firm up, then trim around the templates again to give clean, sharp edges. Leave to cool completely.
6. Put the egg whites in a large bowl, sift in the icing sugar, then stir to make a thick, smooth icing. Spoon into a piping bag with a medium nozzle. 
7. Pipe generous snakes of icing along the wall edges, one by one, to join the walls together. Use a small bowl to support the walls from the inside, then allow to dry, ideally for a few hours.
8. Once dry, remove the supports and fix the roof panels on. Dry completely, ideally overnight. 
9. Decorate as you wish. Your gingerbread house will be edible for about a week but will last a lot longer.