A Frozen gingerbread house is not a cottage, it is an ice palace. In Disney’s 2013 film, Elsa builds hers alone on the North Mountain, so this build is three frosted towers with tall spires, blue candy glass windows and candy ice around the base.
Our house dough and royal icing recipes set every bake temperature and wait, and the free template was checked so every tower closes square. If you are building with kids, every step has a photo. If you want it to glow, an LED tea light slides in through a hidden back arch. And if spires sound hard, they are not: each one is a store-bought sugar cone, frosted and sugared, so nothing tall or pointed ever goes in the oven.
You will end up with a palace about 11 inches tall, made in four short sessions plus a finishing morning, and two easier versions. Start with the template, then the shopping list, the day-by-day plan and 16 photographed steps.
Frozen Gingerbread House Ice Palace: At a Glance
- Difficulty: Medium. Three square towers and flat lids, no roof angles, but more pieces and more waits than an easy house.
- Total time: about 2 days, in four sessions plus a finishing morning. Most of it is icing setting.
- Active time: about 5 hours.
- Makes: one ice palace about 11 inches tall and 9 inches wide, on a 12 inch round board. 17 baked pieces and 3 sugar cones.
- Template: free 2-page PDF, US Letter, true size with a 1 inch test bar.
Tools: printer, ruler, scissors, rolling pin with 1/4 inch guides, parchment, 3 half sheet pans, paring knife, 2 piping bags with small round tips, offset spatula, sieve, 6 cans for propping, 12 inch round cake board, 1 battery LED tea light.
Materials
- 1 batch of sturdy gingerbread house dough
- 2 batches of stiff royal icing, one for gluing and one for frosting
- About 30 blue and clear hard candies
- 3 sugar cones, white sanding sugar, light blue gel food coloring, powdered sugar
Steps
- Print the template at Actual Size and measure the test bar.
- Make the dough and chill it for at least an hour.
- Roll the dough 1/4 inch thick and cut the four center tower walls.
- Cut the side tower walls, the three lids and the door.
- Bake at 300 degrees F, then melt blue candy into the windows.
- Trim every piece against the template while it is warm.
- Bake a sheet of crushed candy for the ice shards.
- Glue the door onto the flat front wall.
- Stand the center tower on the board and wait 2 hours.
- Stand the two side towers against it and wait 2 hours.
- Set the three lids and wait 4 hours.
- Frost the palace white and sprinkle it with sanding sugar.
- Frost the sugar cones and set them on the lids as spires.
- Pipe icicles under the lids and snowflakes on the walls.
- Stand the candy ice shards around the palace.
- Snow the board and light the windows with an LED tea light.
Notes: times are worked out from the set times on our icing page, not timed on a build. Ovens and doughs vary, so treat every bake time here as a starting point: check early, go by the matte surface and firm edge, and bake a test strip before you build.
Free Printable Frozen Gingerbread House Template
The template is two US Letter pages with 17 pieces, drawn at true size. Download the PDF, print it at Actual Size or 100 percent, and put a ruler on the red 1 inch bar before you cut anything. If the bar measures an inch, every piece is right.
| Piece | Cut | Size | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Center tower front and back | 2 | 3 1/2 x 6 1/2 in | Same outline. Cut the pointed window out of the front and the 2 inch light arch out of the back. |
| Center tower side | 2 | 3 x 6 1/2 in | Tucks between the front and back so the tower is a true 3 1/2 inch square. |
| Center lid | 1 | 4 in square | Overhangs the tower 1/4 inch all round, an eave for icicles, and carries the tall spire. |
| Door | 1 | 1 1/2 x 2.4 in, pointed top | Glued onto the front, not cut through. Two scored lines make it look like a double door. |
| Side tower front and back | 4 | 2 1/2 x 4 in | Cut a small pointed window in two of them for the fronts. The other two stay solid. |
| Side tower side | 4 | 2 x 4 in | Tucks between the front and back, like the center tower. |
| Side lid | 2 | 3 in square | One for each side tower, with room for its spire. |
| Sugar cones | 3 | store-bought | The spires. Not baked and not on the template. |
The sizes are worked out so the build goes together without trimming. Each side wall is 1/2 inch narrower than its front because it sits between two walls of 1/4 inch dough. The side towers are 2 1/2 inches deep against a 3 1/2 inch center, so they sit back half an inch from the center front, which gives the palace its stepped look. The big window sits well above the top of the back arch, so one outline works for both walls, and the arch is 2 inches wide, enough for a standard 1.5 inch LED tea light. A full-size sugar cone, like the Joy #310 that WebstaurantStore lists at 4 5/8 inches tall and 1 7/8 inches across, sits on even the 3 inch side lid with room to spare. Measure yours, because cone sizes vary.
Solid black lines are cuts and red dashes are openings you cut out, while the brown dash and dot lines on the door are score lines that you press halfway in and never cut through. If you want a house with a classic roof instead, the rest of our true-size house templates work the same way.
What You Need for the Ice Palace
You need one batch of dough, two batches of royal icing, a bag of hard candy and three sugar cones. Everything else is kitchen gear you probably own.
For baking
- 1 batch of our sturdy house dough. The 17 pieces come to about 190 square inches of dough, which is close to the whole batch, so reroll the scraps once and cut carefully.
- About 30 hard candies, mostly blue with a few clear ones, unwrapped. About 8 go into the windows and the rest make the ice shards. Crush them in a zip bag, keeping the blue and clear in separate bags.
For the icing
- 2 batches of glue-strength royal icing, made one at a time. The first is for gluing walls and piping details. The second is the frost: thin it with a teaspoon of water at a time until it spreads like thick frosting.
- Light blue gel food coloring, for a few spoonfuls of icing for the spires and snowflakes.
For the ice and snow
- 3 standard sugar cones, the pointed kind, about 4 1/2 inches tall.
- About 1/2 cup of white sanding sugar, for sparkle on the walls and spires.
- Powdered sugar for snow.
Tools
- Rolling pin with 1/4 inch guide strips, parchment and 3 half sheet pans
- Paring knife, scissors and a ruler
- 2 piping bags with small round tips and an offset spatula
- 6 cans for propping walls
- A 12 inch round cake board
- 1 battery LED tea light, 1.5 inches across, cool white if you can find one
How Long It Takes, Day by Day
Plan on four short sessions over two days, plus a morning to finish, for about 5 hours of hands-on work. The rest is waiting, because royal icing needs time to harden completely before it can carry any weight, and this palace stacks three towers and three lids.
| When | What you do | Hands-on | Then wait |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1, afternoon | Print, make and chill the dough, cut, bake and trim, melt the candy windows, bake the ice sheet, and glue the door onto the flat front wall. | About 2 hours, inside 4 hours with chilling and baking | Overnight, pieces flat |
| Day 2, morning | Stand the center tower. | 20 minutes | 2 hours |
| Day 2, late morning | Stand the two side towers against it. | 25 minutes | 2 hours |
| Day 2, early afternoon | Set the three lids. | 15 minutes | 4 hours |
| Day 2, evening | Frost the palace and sprinkle it with sanding sugar. | 45 minutes | Overnight |
| Day 3, morning | Set the spires, pipe icicles and snowflakes, stand the ice shards and snow the board. | About 1 1/4 hours | Overnight before you move it |
The waits are the ones our icing guide gives for any house: 2 hours before anything sits on or leans against new walls, 4 hours before decoration, and overnight, 8 to 12 hours, for a full cure. In a damp kitchen, add time. In a dry one with the heat on, it goes a little faster.
Say you want it on the table for a party at 2 PM on Saturday, so you bake on Thursday afternoon. On Friday you stand the center tower at 9, the side towers at 11, the lids at 1 and frost at 5, which leaves only the spires, icicles, ice and snow for Saturday morning, with hours to spare. The planner below does that arithmetic for any date you choose.
Ice Palace Build Day Planner
Pick when you want the Frozen ice palace finished. The planner counts back through every drying time and tells you when to start baking.
For planning only: icing sets faster or slower with the weather, so treat each wait as a minimum and check that joints feel firm before moving on. Not professional baking advice. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
How to Make a Frozen Gingerbread House Step by Step
Each step does one job and has one photo, and the “why this matters” lines explain the reasoning behind the steps that keep three towers standing.
1. Print the template and measure the test bar
Print both pages at Actual Size or 100 percent, never Fit to Page, and put a ruler on the red bar, which should read exactly 1 inch. Then cut out the paper pieces, including the pointed window on the center front and the arch on the center back.
Why this matters: the bar is the only way to know the page printed true before you spend an afternoon on dough.
2. Make the dough and chill it
Make one batch of the house dough, split it in two, and flatten each half into a disc about an inch thick, then wrap the discs and chill them for at least an hour. It is ready when a poked disc dents and stays dented.
Why this matters: cold dough cuts with clean edges and spreads less in the oven, so the walls stay the size of the template.
3. Roll the dough and cut the center tower walls
Roll a quarter of the dough at a time on parchment, to an even 1/4 inch between guide strips. Lay the center front and back template on it and cut around it twice with a sharp knife, then cut the pointed window out of one wall, which becomes the front, and the arch out of the other, which becomes the back. Cut the two center side walls, pull away the scraps, and slide the parchment straight onto a pan.
Why this matters: cutting on the parchment means you never lift a soft wall, and a lifted wall stretches out of square.
4. Cut the side towers, lids and door
Roll the rest of the dough and cut the 8 side tower walls, cutting the small pointed window out of two of the fronts. Then cut the 4 inch center lid, the two 3 inch side lids and the door, and press the back of a knife along the two dashed lines on the door, about halfway through. Keep the side tower walls on one pan and the lids and door on another.
Why this matters: the door bakes much faster than a wall, so on a shared pan either it burns or the walls come out underbaked.
5. Bake the pieces, then melt candy into the windows
Check as you go: every oven runs a little hot or cool, so use these times as a guide, not a timer. Look through the oven door often, and trust the matte surface and firm edge over the clock.
Bake at 300 degrees F. The big walls take 22 to 30 minutes, until the surface looks matte and the edge feels firm under a fingertip. The side tower walls, lids and door are smaller, so start checking them at about 15 minutes. Pull the pans with windows out about 5 minutes early, fill each window two candies deep with crushed blue candy, and bake again until it has melted flat and glassy, checking after 5 minutes.
This works like any candy glass window: the candy flows once it reaches the hard crack stage, which Colorado State University Extension puts at 300 to 308 degrees F at sea level. That is right at this oven’s temperature, so it melts slowly. If the candy is still lumpy after about 10 minutes, raise the oven to 325 degrees F and watch it closely. At high altitude, the target drops about 2 degrees for every 1,000 feet, so check sooner, because candy that melts early can brown.
Why this matters: melted candy is far hotter than the cookie around it, and it burns fast once it pools.
6. Trim every piece while it is warm
Within two minutes of each pan coming out, lay the paper piece back on top and trim any edge that spread past it. Then leave everything on the pan until it is completely cool and flat. Do not lift a window wall until the candy has hardened. When a cooled scrap bends a little and then snaps cleanly, the pieces are ready to build with.
Why this matters: warm gingerbread trims cleanly with a knife, while cooled gingerbread tends to snap exactly where you did not want it to.
7. Bake a sheet of candy for the ice shards
Line a pan with parchment and spread the rest of the crushed candy in one thin, even layer, about the size of a sheet of paper, with the blue and clear mixed in streaks. Bake it at 300 degrees F, checking after 5 minutes, until it has melted into one glassy sheet, then let it cool completely on the pan. Snap it into tall, jagged shards, from 1 to 3 inches long, and keep them in a zip bag until the last morning.
Why this matters: one sheet of candy gives you every icicle and ice crystal on the board, and the clear streaks catch the light like real ice. The edges are sharp, so a grown-up should do the snapping.
8. Glue the door onto the flat front wall
With the center front wall lying flat, spread a thin layer of white icing on the back of the door and press it on, centered, with its bottom edge even with the bottom of the wall. Let the front wall rest flat overnight.
Why this matters: a piece glued onto a flat wall cannot slide, but on a standing wall the door gradually creeps down before the icing grabs.
9. Stand the center tower on the board
Pipe a thick line of icing along the bottom edge and both side edges of the center front wall, and stand it in the middle of the board, a little toward the front edge. Set the two center side walls behind its edges so they tuck in between, then add the back wall, arch at the bottom. Prop each wall with a can and leave it for 2 hours.
Why this matters: the front and back run the full width and the sides sit inside them, which makes a true 3 1/2 inch square. Two hours is how long new walls need before anything can lean on them.
10. Stand the two side towers against it
Build each side tower the same way, front and back full width and the sides tucked between, with the window wall facing front. Pipe icing down the inner side wall as well, and press each tower against a side of the center tower, centered so it sits half an inch back from the center front. Prop the outer walls with cans and leave them for 2 hours.
Why this matters: leaning a side tower on a center tower that has not set pushes both out of square, which is why this step waits its own 2 hours.
11. Set the three lids
First, slide your tea light in and out through the back arch to be sure it fits. Then pipe a thick line along the top edge of each tower’s walls and lower its lid on, centered, so it overhangs about 1/4 inch on every side. Leave them for 4 hours before the frosting goes on.
Why this matters: the lids carry the spires, so they need set walls under them and a firm joint before you load them.
12. Frost the palace white
Spread the thinned white icing over the walls and lids with an offset spatula, about 1/8 inch thick, working one wall at a time. Bring it up to the edges of the door and the candy windows, but not over them, and keep the back arch completely clear. Pull the spatula upward as you go so the frost has rough, icy streaks, then sprinkle sanding sugar over each wall while it is wet. Let it dry overnight.
Why this matters: the frost hides every seam, and the sanding sugar is what turns a white house into an ice palace when the light hits it.
13. Frost the sugar cones and set the spires
Tint a few spoonfuls of icing pale blue. Hold a sugar cone by its open end, spread the icing over the outside in upward strokes, and roll it in sanding sugar. Pipe a ring of white icing inside the circle on a lid, press the cone down into it, open end down, and hold it for a minute. Do the center tower first, then both side towers.
Why this matters: a cone glued over a set lid stands straight on its own, which is how this palace gets three tall spires with no curved baking at all.
14. Pipe the icicles and snowflakes
With white icing and a small round tip, pipe icicles down from the edge of each lid: touch the tip under the edge, squeeze, and pull down and away so each one tapers to a point. Vary the lengths. Then switch to the pale blue icing and pipe a few small snowflakes on the walls, six short lines crossing in the middle with a dot at each end, and a thin outline around each window.
15. Stand the ice shards around the palace
Pipe a short, thick line of icing on the board and stand two or three shards up in it, leaning in toward the palace, then repeat in clusters around the base and at the corners. Lay a few flat shards beside the door like a frozen path. Hold each cluster for a few seconds until it stays.
Why this matters: candy pulls moisture from the air and turns sticky, so the shards go on last, on the morning you show the palace off.
16. Snow the board and light the windows
Spread a thin layer of white icing over the bare board around the shards, then sift powdered sugar over the whole scene. Switch on the LED tea light and slide it in through the back arch, and the big window glows blue. Use only a battery light. A real candle inside a closed tower of sugar and butter can scorch the walls or catch, which is why our guide to lighting gingerbread houses safely sticks to LEDs. Let the finished palace stand overnight before you move it.
Keep track as you go with the checklist below, which remembers your ticks on this device and tells you exactly when each wait is over.
Ice Palace Build Checklist
Tick each step as you finish it. When a step needs icing to set, the checklist tells you the time it is safe to carry on. Your ticks are saved on this device.
0 of 16 steps done
No waits running yet.
For planning only: set times change with the weather, so press a joint gently before you load it. Not professional baking advice. Your progress is saved in this browser only and never sent anywhere.
Why the Palace Uses Three Square Towers
Gingerbread cannot bend once it is baked, so a round ice tower is not an option without a curved mold. The choices are a ring of many tapered panels, like our lighthouse, or square towers. We chose three squares because each one is the easiest box there is: every wall is braced by two others, the flat lid locks the top square, and the side towers brace the center one once they set. A ring of tapered panels looks rounder, but every joint is a slanted seam that has to meet its neighbors exactly, and a palace needs three of them.
The height comes from the sugar cones instead. A cone is already a perfect spire, light enough for a flat lid to carry, and frosted pale blue with sanding sugar it reads as ice, not ice cream. The steps between the towers do the rest: the center tower stands taller and half an inch forward, so even straight walls look like a palace climbing up a mountain.
The light works the same way as on our lighthouse build, from inside, but here it slides in through a 2 inch arch in the back wall. Picture a family that seals the tea light in on Friday so the window glows for Saturday’s party. It glows all weekend, nobody can reach the switch, and by Tuesday the window is dark. With the arch, the light goes on when guests arrive and off at bedtime.
Troubleshooting
If it goes wrong, most problems come from loading icing before it has set, or from heat and humidity, so here is what to look for and what to do about it.
| What you see | Why it happens | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A wall leans or slides while setting | The icing was too soft, or the cans came off early | Push it back, prop it again, and wait the full 2 hours. Stiffer icing holds its peak when you pull a spoon out. |
| A side tower pushes the center tower out of square | It went on before the center tower had set | Take it off, scrape the icing, wait out the 2 hours and stand it again. |
| The walls do not meet at a corner | A piece spread in the oven and was not trimmed | Fill a small gap with icing. The frost hides it. Next time, trim within two minutes of baking. |
| A window candy browned or bubbled | It stayed in too long, or you are at high altitude | Check from 5 minutes. A browned window still glows, just a greener blue. |
| The candy did not melt | A 300 degree oven sits right at the candy’s melting point | Give it a few more minutes at 325 degrees F and watch it. |
| A spire leans or slides off | The lid icing was wet, or the cone went on before the lid set | Lift it off, pipe a fresh ring and hold it for a minute. Prop it with a cup for 30 minutes if it still tips. |
| The frost runs down the walls | It is too thin | Stir in powdered sugar a spoonful at a time until it holds the spatula streaks. |
| The ice shards turned sticky or cloudy | Candy pulls water from damp air | Bake a fresh sheet and add the shards on the day you show the palace. Keep the bag sealed until then. |
| A shard keeps falling over | The icing line was too thin | Pipe a thicker line, stand two shards against each other, and hold them for a few seconds. |
| The tea light will not fit the arch | The page printed small, or frost covered the opening | Scrape the arch clear with a knife. Check the test bar before the next print. |
Easier Versions: No-Bake and Kit Shortcuts
If baking from scratch is too much this year, the same ice palace works two simpler ways.
A No-Bake Graham Cracker Ice Palace for Small Kids
Graham crackers make a smaller palace with no oven at all. Stand four full sheets on their short ends in a box, glued with royal icing, for the center tower, and top it with half a sheet. For each side tower, stand four half sheets in a small square box and top it with another half sheet. Frost it white, press a blue hard candy onto the front for a window, and glue a sugar cone onto each lid. A no-bake graham cracker house of any shape lives or dies on the glue, so use royal icing, not tub frosting, for the walls.
Picture a five year old who wants to help but cannot wait two days. Build the graham towers with them in the morning, let them set while they have lunch, and they press on the windows, spires and snowflake sprinkles that afternoon. The gingerbread version can be the grown-up project for the weekend.
The Kit Shortcut
Licensed Frozen kits turn up some years, like the Disney Frozen 2 Gingerbread Cookie Castle Kit that Canadian Tire has listed, but stock comes and goes. Any plain kit works instead: build the four walls, leave the roof panels off, glue one flat on top as a lid, and stand a frosted sugar cone on it. Two more plain kits, or two small boxes cut from a third, make the side towers. Then use the frost, candy windows, icicles and ice shards from the steps above.
Storage Instructions
Humidity is what softens gingerbread and makes candy sticky, so keep the palace in a cool, dry room, away from the stove, the dishwasher and sunny windows. Cover it loosely with a clean cloth if dust is a worry. Switch the tea light off when no one is looking, and take it out before you put the palace away.
Treat it as a decoration once it has stood out for a few days. The candy shards go sticky in damp air, and royal icing made with raw egg whites is not cooked at any stage. If you plan to eat some, make the icing with meringue powder instead.
FAQ
Is this an official Disney Frozen design?
No. It is our own palace, inspired by the ice palace in the film, and it uses no character figures, logos or film artwork. The towers, spires, blue windows and ice are what tell the story.
How tall is the finished ice palace?
About 11 inches to the tip of the center spire. The center tower is 3 1/2 inches square and 6 1/2 inches tall, the side towers are 4 inches tall, and the whole palace is about 9 inches wide, so it needs a 12 inch round board.
Can I use a real candle inside?
No. Use a battery LED tea light, because the tower is a closed space made of sugar and butter, and a flame inside it can scorch the walls or catch fire.
Can you eat a gingerbread ice palace?
The gingerbread and cones are edible when fresh, but this is built as a display piece. The candy shards have sharp edges, and royal icing made with raw egg whites is never cooked. If you want to nibble it, use meringue powder icing and eat it soon after it is finished.
Can I make it bigger?
Yes. Print at 125 percent for a palace about 13 inches tall with the same cones, but cut each side wall 1/2 inch narrower than its printed front wall instead of using the printed side piece, because the dough is still 1/4 inch thick at any size. Plan on a second batch of dough.
What can I use instead of sugar cones?
Pointed wafer cones work if you can find them, and so does a tall swirl of stiff white icing piped straight up from each lid with a large star tip. The swirl is shorter but has no weight at all.
More Gingerbread House Builds and Recipes
If the palace made you want another shaped build, try the steep roof and tall steeple of our printable chapel, or set the palace on a hill of powdered sugar at the edge of your gingerbread village. And when the frost or the windows give you trouble, our tips for any gingerbread house cover the fixes that work on every build.
Build Your Next House With Best Gingerbread Houses
The Frozen ice palace proves the point we come back to on every build: a few strong details tell the whole story. When you want a head start next time, our ranked guide to boxed kits sorts the ones that hold together from the ones that do not, so you can spend your time on the windows, the spires and the ice.