Gingerbread houses are very common throughout Europe, particularly at Christmas time. They are relatively simple to make, and will look fabulous in your shop during the festive season. Children adore them. Ingredients Gingerbread, royal icing, baker’s chocolate, décor. Method 1 First, prepare your gingerbread dough - we use a Swiss Lebkuchen mix, made with honey and slightly chewy. Roll it so that the gingerbread will be 10-12mm thick when baked. It is now ready to cut into pieces. 2 We use card templates as a cutting guide. 3 Bake your gingerbread and leave to cool. Glaze the tops with apricot jam and brush the backs with chocolate. This design uses one rectangular piece for the base, two triangles and two rectangles for the house, and two small triangles for trees. 4 Spread a thick layer of icing onto the base. Place the two triangles on the base and hold in place with icing. Let the icing firm up. 5 Pipe a line of icing along the triangle edges. Place on the two rectangular sides of the roof. 6 Decorate the trees and put in position. 7 Last, Pipe on icicles with royal icing - this covers the joins. Décor Hints: roll out doors and windows in sugarpaste and stick to the house. Keep the individual components simple. Pipe icing decorations on your trees. Small pieces of gingerbread can be used to make a fire.