Why the roof is bigger than the walls
A roof cut to the exact width of the walls has nothing to glue to and no overhang, so icing holds it on a line rather than a surface and the whole thing collapses in the oven-warm kitchen. These roof panels are 8mm longer on each side and 5mm at the eaves, which gives you a proper joint and a shadow line that looks like a roof.
The gables are drawn with the same pitch as the roof panel length, which sounds obvious and is the error in most free templates. If the angles do not match, the roof sits on one edge and leaves a gap along the ridge.
Three sizes and the tiling option
The default house is about 15cm tall, which fits on a dinner plate and uses roughly one batch of dough. Small is 10cm and suits a child building their own. Large is 22cm, which needs tiling across two sheets and a double batch.
Tiled panels print with 10mm overlaps and crosshair registration marks. Tape the sheets together before cutting, not after.
Using it with dough
Cut the panels from card, not paper, and lay them on rolled dough rather than pressing. Cut round with a knife held vertically, because an angled cut gives you panels that do not meet. Trim the baked pieces while they are still warm, since gingerbread spreads a few millimetres in the oven and every panel will be slightly larger than the card.
Keep the card templates. Trimming warm biscuit against the original panel is the single thing that makes a house square.
If you are building it from card instead
The same panels work in 250gsm card with the glue tabs option switched on, which adds 10mm tabs on the wall edges. A card gingerbread house is a reasonable craft afternoon and survives being handled, which a biscuit one does not.
Questions
- Do the gingerbread house panels actually fit together?
- Yes. The gable pitch matches the roof panel length, and the roof pieces are deliberately 8mm longer at the sides and 5mm at the eaves so they overhang and have a surface to be iced onto.
- What size house does the template make?
- About 15cm tall by default, which fits a dinner plate and uses roughly one batch of dough. A 10cm small version and a 22cm large version are also available, the large one tiled across two sheets.
- Why are my baked panels bigger than the template?
- Gingerbread spreads a few millimetres in the oven. Keep the card panels and trim each baked piece against its template while it is still warm, which is what makes the finished house square.
- Can I build the house from card instead of biscuit?
- Yes. Switch on the glue tabs option, print on 250gsm card and the same panels assemble into a card house that survives being handled.