1. For the dough add the butter to a large bowl and mix until softened. Add the brown sugar, gingerbread spice, ground cinnamon, and salt and mix until light and fluffy. Add the beet syrup and vanilla extract and mix it in. Add the flour and mix/knead until you get a nice smooth dough. Place the dough on your work surface, sprinkle with some more flour and knead for some time with your hands, shape into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes. I made three batches of dough because it was easier for my kitchen machine to process – if you have a larger one, make all at once, but divide it into three batches and then let it rest in the fridge. You can store the dough overnight if you need to prepare it in advance.

 

2. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Place a large piece of baking parchment on your work surface and sprinkle with some flour. Take the first batch of dough and roll out on the paper – about 0.2 inches thick. Place the template pieces on the dough and cut out with a sharp knife. Try not to place the template pieces too close to each other since the dough tends to spread. For windows and doors cut the shapes, but do not remove the windows/doors – you have to remove those parts right after baking. When you have enough parts on your baking parchment, slide onto your baking sheet and bake for about 20-23 minutes. The gingerbread should have a nice golden brown color, but not look burned. Take out and pull the baking parchment with the gingerbread pieces off the baking sheet. If you need to trim the pieces because they spread too much, you have couple minutes where it is easy to cut the gingerbread – when it is cooled and dry, cutting the gingerbread will get more difficult and in some cases, it can break. Be careful ;) Continue cutting and baking the gingerbread until you got all the pieces you need. Let them cool completely before assembling the house.

 

3. For the icing add about 4 cups of the confectioners’ sugar and the cream of tartar to a large bowl and mix until well combined. Add the egg whites and lemon juice and mix until you get a smooth and shiny icing. The icing for the construction of the house should be thicker, the one to pipe railings, for example, should be not too thick, so you have to adjust depending on the usage of the icing. The icing to build the house should also have a similar color to the gingerbread, the icing for the wood panels should be on the grey-brownish side, the icing for the railings dark grey and the icing for the roof even darker – so adjust accordingly.

 

4. I recommend starting with the main part of the building. To perfectly fit two sides together, you should cut the edges at a 45° angle. Use the thicker icing to keep all parts together and let dry for at least 1 hour before moving. For the roofs you should start with the sides and put them together – use glasses or other heavy objects to hold everything in place, then the sides are dry, add the top of each roof. To assemble the parts, place the main part of the building on a board, attach the entrance, the porch, and balcony (with the pretzel sticks as pillars), as well ass the balconies on the side, the main roof and the little tower. Let dry overnight.

 

5. To achieve the wooden look of the house, use a flat piping tip and use a greyish-brownish icing. For the roof use dark, almost black icing and use a round tip to get the pattern of roof tiles. To create the railings and shutters use dark icing and pipe the railings/ stutters on a piece of baking parchment and let dry. The pieces are quite delicate to handle, so be careful and let them dry really good. Add the railings and more decorations with icing on the house and let dry.

 

6. To make the house look even more real, you can brush the house with some food color to make it look more decayed.