You may have seen those amazing haunted Halloween gingerbread houses on Pinterest and thought that they were too daunting to do yourself, but they’re easier to make than you think! Wilton, Target and Williams-Sonoma all make pre-made kits, some of which are featured below. All you have to do is assemble & decorate them. Here are some example houses to get your creativity flowing.

My Mexican Day of the Dead house was inspired by the sugar skulls that typically signify the holiday.

 

House of Nerds house, nerds!

 

Boston Baked Beans give this house a blood red sheen

 

Ok, these aren’t houses, they are ghosts in a graveyard….but ghosts do live in graveyards, so this is their home.

Here are some additional unpublished houses

To create the dripping blood on our “Vampire Houses” We used the same technique for making candy apples. It’s almost as easy as boiling water, but you do need a candy thermometer. I love this digital one from Sur la Table.  The melted sugar must get to 300 degrees or it won’t set when cooled and you will have a gloppy mess.

Vampire House

Whisk together 1/2 cup of powered sugar with about a tablespoon of water to make a white glaze. Paint the glaze over the house to create the vampires pale pallor.

Place the assembled cookie house on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat.

For Candy Coating

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 – 1 teaspoon red food coloring

Candy thermometer

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a medium sized saucepan. Bring to a boil, attach the candy thermometer and reduce heat to medium-high. Continue cooking until it reaches 300 degrees (called the hard crack stage), about 15 minutes. When the candy reaches the right temperature, quickly and carefully ladle it over the house. It will be very hot and you don’t want it to splash.

Let cool completely before decorating with bats, eyes and frosting accents.

 Dripping Blood Gingerbread House

This house is super simple. For the blood, all I did was pour the candy apple coating over a pre-made house. The door’s made out of a Milano cookie and the window’s a shortbread cookie which I decorated with Halloween themed sprinkles.