I’ve nearly worked my way through the gingerbread house kits I bought for my Gingerbread Gift Guide. I loved putting it together but was also looking forward to trying out all the different kits I bought. The Waitrose gingerbread kits I bought have been a success. I loved making the Waitrose Gingerbread Box Kit and the gingerbread from the Waitrose Gingerbread & Shortbread Decorating Kit are adorning our Christmas tree. Finally it was time to try the Gingerbread House Kit from Waitrose. It cost just £4.40 from Waitrose.

Christmas gingerbread house kit

We love baking a gingerbread house at Christmas. Over the years we’ve tried a few kits and have made houses and even a campervan. The Waitrose Gingerbread House kit was a traditional kit. It included a gingerbread mix sachet with a white royal icing sachet, red writing icing pen and boiled sweets. You just needed to supply unsalted butter, water and honey (or syrup for extra sweetness).

Gingerbread is a special treat all year round in our house but it really becomes something special in Winter. I love it when the house is filled with the smell of freshly baked gingerbread and I don’t mind if it’s baked from scratch or shop-bought dough. I’d love to have more time on my hands but these kids of kits are perfect for families like mine who love a seasonal activity.

This kit was similar to other Waitrose kits we’ve tried. Most of the ingredients were in the box and the template was printed inside. We made the dough, left it to cool, before rolling it and cutting out the shapes. There was quite a lot of dough left over so we cut some extra shapes.

The structure was really simple, almost like a little A frame house. We decided not to use the boiled sweets for the windows as no-one enjoys eating them.

The gingerbread needed to be trimmed slightly but it was a lovely colour. When it was cool enough we mixed up the icing and started building. It was so simple there are no process photos! But here’s a photo of the finished gingerbread house. We added a few decorations we had at home.

Then we decided to add some ‘snow’.

And guess what happened? Our cheeky elves decided to help themselves ….

Surely the easiest, and naughtiest, Elf on the Shelf antics?!