Mix things up this Holiday season with a gingerbread house inspired by one of our favorite dogs: Snoopy!!
Please note, this gingerbread house is for hoomans to enjoy, not dogs (although our pup patiently waited all night for us to decide otherwise)!
To make the gingerbread for Snoopy and his little, red dog house, we used a recipe from The Food Network. You can find our version of the recipe:
Ingredients
Gingerbread:
- 8 ounces unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/12 cups packed light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup dark molasses
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 6 1/4 cups cake flour
- 4 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Snoopy Gingerbread House Templates:
Royal Icing:
- 9 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 6 egg whites
Assemble and Decorate the House:
- Heavy Cardboard base for the dog house
- Pastry bag with a medium plain tip
- Peanut M&M’s
Directions:
To begin, cream the butter and slowly add the sugar until the mix becomes light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time until incorporated, followed by the molasses and vanilla.
Sift together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture until combined. Chill the dough 1-2 hours in the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
On a lightly floured surface baking sheet, divide the dough in half and roll each piece out into a large 1/4-inch thick sheet. We didn’t have a rolling pin, so we just used an empty wine bottle. If you use our rolling pin method, make sure the wine bottle is empty before you use it to roll out your dough (score!!).
Follow the instructions on the Snoopy Dog House Templates, then use the template to cut the shapes from your dough. Make sure you sprinkle a little flour on your dough, to prevent it from sticking to the templates! After cutting out all the shapes, transfer the baking sheets + dough to a cookie sheet and bake about 10 to 15 minutes.
Allow the gingerbread to completely cool before you begin to assemble the dog house.
Don’t worry, while you wait for your gingerbread to cool you can make the Royal Icing:
Begin by whisking the confectioners’ sugar and egg whites together. Add more sugar, if necessary, if the icing seems too thin. Create red, white, and black icing by using food colors. Note, you will need much more red icing than white or black.
After your gingerbread has cooled, you are ready to assemble and decorate Snoopy’s house! Secure the house walls together by setting them up on the cardboard base, and piping the royal icing at the joints.
Hold or prop the sides up and let set for 30 minutes. Attach the roof pieces, using the icing in the same way. The rooftop will want to slide off, so make sure you prop it up and allow plenty of time for the frosting to dry before moving on to decorating the house.
Now that you have patiently waited for the joints to dry, you are ready to frost the house!
Frost the house in red and outline with black lines. Pile white frosting onto the top of the roof to create the snow. After frosting Snoopy directly on top.
Pipe black frosting onto the roof where you want Snoopy’s ears to hang, and create the outline of his arms. To create the strands of Christmas lights, pipe black royal icing across the roof in two long strands.
Lastly, and this is the most important part, take a step back and admire your fine handy-work before someone comes along and eats it.
