Buckingham Palace chefs have put together a step-by-step guide on how to bake and decorate a gingerbread house from scratch. Festive food is a big part of Christmas celebrations and this year the royal kitchens have revealed their recipe for the perfect gingerbread house. Shared on the Royal Family’s official Twitter and Instagram pages, Buckingham Palace chefs have put together a step-by-step guide on how to bake and decorate the gingerbread from scratch. A video created by the cooks features guidance on how to decorate the house, with a time-lapse showing the delicate piping techniques used. The recipe even includes a diagram with the exact measurements to help bakers build the festive structure. This year the Queen has decided to remain at Windsor Castle for the Christmas period, rather than travel to Sandringham as usual.
Method
Mix flour, bicarbonate and spices together.
Add cold diced butter and continue mixing until the mixture crumbles.
Add sugar and briefly combine.
Add eggs and syrup and mix until a dough is formed.
Divide into two blocks, knead together by hand and flatten.
Wrap and chill for a few hours before rolling to approximately five millimetres thickness for the house parts and approximately three millimetres for smaller decorative parts.
Cut gingerbread house shapes using a template.
Place on baking trays and chill again before baking.
For windows, crush boiled sweets into the spaces you have cut.
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Baking
Preheat a fan oven at 165 degrees Celsius for a period of 18 minutes for the house pieces, and 12 minutes for the smaller pieces.
Royal Icing
Ingredients
1500g – Icing sugar
200g – Egg white
50g – Lemon juice
Method
Sieve icing sugar and combine with egg white and lemon juice by hand first before placing into mixer.
Paddle together on low speed for about two minutes, then scrape sides and paddle well.
Continue mixing on low speed for approximately another five minutes, until a creamy hard peak consistency is reached.
For piping, decoration works loosen icing with some water.
To assemble gingerbread house use hard peak icing.
Royal fans were delighted with the new Christmas recipe shared by the Royal Family chefs.
One Instagram user, @chirp2lou said: “I won’t be making this but what a treat to watch an expert! Beautiful!”
Another, @mmmockett wrote: “Beautiful. These baking and cooking videos are my favourite. Thank you for making and sharing them.”
One fan @graminthegarden said: “That has to be the prettiest one I’ve ever seen!”
Another @tea.flowers.books added: “Masterpiece.”
Royal fan @whimsiclepeak commented saying: “Beautiful… a work of art.”