Every fall, a brand new gingerbread house appears on the ballroom table inside the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. This year’s stands more than 10 feet tall. You cannot take that one home, but you can build the mansion it lives in: a white house with tall columns, a balcony and a little tower on the roof.
Our house dough and royal icing recipes set every bake temperature and wait, and the free template was checked so every wall, roof panel and column lines up. It is written for Disney fans, Halloween bakers and anyone who wants a spooky house that still looks elegant.
The cupola on top lifts off like a lid, so a battery light goes inside and all fifteen windows glow ghostly green. You will end up with a mansion about 7 inches tall in two days, plus two easier versions. Start with the template and the 16 steps.
Haunted Mansion Gingerbread House: At a Glance
- Difficulty: Medium. There are 20 pieces from one batch of dough, all of them flat, and the eight columns are pretzel rods, not baked.
- Total time: about 1 1/2 days, in three sessions on day one and two on the morning of day two. Most of it is icing setting.
- Active time: about 6 hours, counting the dough chill and the bake.
- Makes: a two-story mansion about 5 inches wide and 7 inches tall to the top of the cupola, with a two-story columned porch and a balcony, on a 12 inch square board.
- Template: free 3-page PDF, US Letter, true size with a 1 inch test bar on every page.
Tools: printer, ruler, scissors, rolling pin with 1/4 inch guides, parchment, 2 half sheet pans, paring knife, serrated knife, 3 piping bags, a small round tip, offset spatula, 2 cans for propping, 12 inch square cake board, kitchen tongs, 1 battery LED tea light.
Materials
- 1 batch of sturdy gingerbread house dough
- 2 batches of royal icing
- About 30 green hard candies
- 3 pretzel rods and about 30 pretzel sticks
- About 1 cup of crushed chocolate wafer cookies, 2 graham cracker sheets, and black gel food coloring
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 walls and their windows.
- Cut the roof panels, the deck, the three porch slabs and the cupola pieces.
- Bake at 300 degrees F, then melt green candy into the windows.
- Trim every piece against the template while it is warm.
- Coat the walls white while they lie flat.
- Build the cupola on the deck and coat the eight pretzel columns.
- Stand the four walls on the board and wait 2 hours.
- Set the four hipped roof panels.
- Pipe the roof shingles, then let it set overnight.
- Stand the columns and set the porch floor, balcony and porch roof.
- Pipe the balcony railing, the door and the trim.
- Lay the yard, the path, the fence and the stones.
- Set the deck and cupola on the roof.
- Lift the cupola, lower an LED tea light inside and light the mansion.
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.
The Haunted Mansion Holiday Gingerbread House at Disneyland
The house most people are searching for is the one inside the ride. Each year from late summer through the holidays, the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland turns into Haunted Mansion Holiday, an overlay that mixes Halloween and Christmas with Jack Skellington from “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.” The overlay first opened in 2001. In the story, one of Jack’s traditions is leaving a giant gingerbread house on the table in the Grand Hall for the ghosts at their party, and Disneyland’s 2026 fact sheet says a team of carpenters, storytellers, pastry chefs, bakers and technical specialists builds a new design every year.
The 2026 house marks 25 years of these creations. It is a music box more than 10 feet tall, covered in gears and festive details. As a giant key with Santa Jack on it turns, the box plays a holiday song, and the roof lifts to reveal a skeletal surprise. The houses are big pieces of engineering as well as baking: the 2024 display was 5 feet tall and 6 feet wide, and Disney Parks Blog listed 60 pounds of gingerbread, 50 pounds of powdered sugar and 10 pounds of egg whites, plus more than 150 hours just to build and program its animation and lighting.
| Year | The house in the Grand Hall |
|---|---|
| 2019 | A house honoring the Haunted Mansion’s 50th anniversary. |
| 2020 | No house. Disneyland was closed. |
| 2021 | A mash-up of houses from past years for the overlay’s 20th anniversary. |
| 2022 | A moving gingerbread guillotine topped by Lock, Shock and Barrel. |
| 2023 | A mausoleum with a gingerbread ghost named Von Ginger who pops out. |
| 2024 | Lil’ Franky, a gingerbread zombie on Dr. Finkelstein’s operating table whose head pops off and on. |
| 2025 | A house in the style of the mansion itself, crawling with gingerbread ravens. |
| 2026 | A giant music box whose roof lifts to reveal a skeletal surprise. |
None of those can be copied at home, and you would not want to: they are built around metal frames, motors and lights. What you can build is the mansion they sit in. The 2025 house was styled after the mansion’s own front, which is a good sign the building itself is worth the trouble. This page is an at-home build in that style, not a copy of any park display, and Best Gingerbread Houses is not affiliated with Disney. If you love the park’s other famous house, the story of the Grand Floridian display is worth a read too.
Free Printable Haunted Mansion Gingerbread House Template
The template is three US Letter pages with 20 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front wall | 1 | 5 x 4 in | Five windows, three upstairs and two down. A grey arch marks where you pipe the door, which is not cut. |
| Back wall | 1 | 5 x 4 in | Two upstairs windows. |
| Side wall | 2 | 3 x 4 in | One window up and one down. Tucks between the front and back walls. |
| Roof, front and back | 2 | 5 in at the bottom, 3 1/2 in at the top | Lean in at 45 degrees and meet the side panels at the corners. |
| Roof, side | 2 | 3 1/2 in at the bottom, 2 in at the top | Close the hipped roof, leaving a 3 1/2 x 2 inch opening on top. |
| Roof deck | 1 | 3 3/4 x 2 1/4 in | Covers the opening. It sits loose, so it lifts off with the cupola. |
| Porch slab | 3 | 5 x 1 1/4 in | The porch floor, the balcony and the porch roof, stacked on two rows of pretzel columns. |
| Cupola walls | 4 | two 1 1/4 in squares, two 3/4 x 1 1/4 in | The little tower on top, each wall with an arched window. |
| Cupola roof | 4 | triangles 1 1/2 in at the base, 1 in tall | Lean together into a point over the cupola. |
The sizes are worked out so the build goes together without trimming. The side walls are 3 inches wide so they fit between the front and back walls for a footprint of 5 by 3 1/2 inches. Each roof panel steps in 3/4 inch as it rises 3/4 inch, a 45 degree slope, so the four panels meet at the corners and leave an opening on top that is wide enough to pass a 1 1/2 inch tea light through. The deck is 1/8 inch bigger than that opening on every side, so it rests on the roof without falling in. Across the front, the three porch slabs stack on pretzel columns cut to two lengths: 1 3/4 inches from the porch floor to the balcony, and 1 1/2 inches from the balcony to the porch roof, whose top sits level with the top of the walls.
Solid black lines are cuts, red dashes are windows you cut out, and grey dotted lines are guides you never cut. The grey lines on the front wall mark where the balcony and the porch roof meet it, and the grey circles on the porch slab show where the columns stand. If you want a simpler house with a pitched roof next time, our other true size house plans print and fit the same way.
What You Need for the Mansion
You need one batch of dough, two batches of royal icing, a bag of green hard candies, a few pretzels and some crushed cookies for the yard. Everything else is kitchen gear you probably own.
For baking
- 1 batch of a dough built for tall walls. The 20 pieces come to about 106 square inches, and one batch covers about 225, so you have plenty for a test strip and a spare wall.
- About 30 green hard candies for the fifteen windows, unwrapped and crushed in a zip bag.
For the icing
- 2 batches of royal icing that dries hard and white, made one at a time. Keep the first thick and white for gluing and for the coat on the walls and columns. Tint about half of the second batch grey for the roof and the door, and a few spoonfuls black for the fence rails.
- Black gel food coloring for the grey and the black.
- A small round tip for gluing and piping.
For the columns, cupola and yard
- 3 pretzel rods for the eight columns: four cut at 1 3/4 inches and four at 1 1/2 inches, with a spare.
- About 30 pretzel sticks: one for the spire on the cupola and the rest for the fence posts.
- About 1 cup of crushed chocolate wafer cookies for dark garden soil.
- 2 graham cracker sheets for the path stones and a few small headstones.
Tools
- Rolling pin with 1/4 inch guide strips, parchment and 2 half sheet pans
- Paring knife, serrated knife, scissors and a ruler
- 3 piping bags, the round tip and an offset spatula
- 2 cans for propping
- A 12 inch square cake board
- Kitchen tongs and 1 battery LED tea light, 1.5 inches across
How Long It Takes, Day by Day
Plan on three sessions on one day and two short ones the next morning, for about 6 hours of hands-on work counting the chill and the bake. The rest is waiting, because royal icing needs time to harden before it can carry weight.
| When | What you do | Hands-on | Then wait |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1, morning | Print, make and chill the dough, cut, bake and trim, melt the green candy windows, and coat the cooled walls white while they lie flat. | About 3 3/4 hours with chilling and baking | 1 hour |
| Day 1, early afternoon | Stand the four walls, build the cupola on the deck, and coat the eight pretzel columns white on parchment. | About 40 minutes | 2 hours |
| Day 1, late afternoon | Set the four roof panels and pipe the grey shingles. | About 45 minutes | Overnight |
| Day 2, morning | Set the porch floor, stand the columns, and set the balcony and the porch roof. | About 25 minutes | 2 hours |
| Day 2, late morning | Pipe the railing, door and trim, lay the yard, set the cupola and light it. | About 45 minutes | Overnight before you move it |
The waits are the ones our icing guide gives for any house: 2 hours before anything sits on new walls, 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. The hour after the white coat is for the coat to dry firm, so you can handle the walls without smudging them.
Say you want it on the table for a Halloween party on Saturday night. You bake on Friday morning, stand the walls after lunch and roof it before dinner, and on Saturday morning the only jobs left are the porch, the railing, the yard and the light. The planner below does that arithmetic for any date you choose.
Haunted Mansion Build Day Planner
Pick when you want the mansion 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 Haunted Mansion Gingerbread House Step by Step
Each step does one job, and the “why this matters” lines explain the reasoning behind the steps that keep a tall, two-story house standing.
1. Print the template and measure the test bar
Print all three 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. Cut out the paper pieces, including the window rectangles. You need one paper copy of each shape; you cut the dough as many times as the template says.
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. They are 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 square and the roof still meets at the corners.
3. Roll the dough and cut the four walls
Roll a disc on parchment to an even 1/4 inch between guide strips. Lay the paper walls on it and cut the front wall, the back wall and both side walls, then cut out every window rectangle. Pull away the scraps and slide the parchment straight onto a pan. Do not cut the door: you pipe it later.
Why this matters: cutting on the parchment means you never lift and stretch a soft wall, and a tall wall that stretches even a little will lean.
4. Cut the roof panels, deck, balcony slab and cupola pieces
Roll the second disc and cut the two large roof trapezoids, the two small ones, the roof deck and the balcony slab. Then cut the four cupola walls with their arched windows and the four small roof triangles. Keep the eight cupola pieces on their own pan.
Why this matters: the tiny cupola pieces bake much faster than the walls, so on a shared pan either they burn or the walls come out soft.
5. Bake the pieces, then melt green 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 four walls take 22 to 30 minutes, until the surface looks matte and the edge feels firm under a fingertip. Start checking the roof panels, deck and slab at about 18 minutes, and the cupola pieces at about 12. Pull the walls and the cupola walls out about 5 minutes early, fill each window two candies deep with crushed green candy, and bake again until the candy has melted flat and glassy, checking after 5 minutes.
This is the same way you turn crushed candy into window glass on any house: 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 piece until the candy has hardened. When a cooled scrap bends a little and then snaps cleanly, the pieces are ready.
Why this matters: four roof panels have to meet at four corners, and a panel that spread 1/16 inch leaves a gap you can see from across the room.
7. Coat the walls white while they lie flat
Thin a cup of the white icing with a few drops of water until it spreads like soft frosting. With the offset spatula, spread it over the outside of each wall and each cupola wall in a thin, even coat, working around the windows. Keep the candy clear. Let the coat dry firm, about an hour.
Why this matters: icing spread on a flat wall stays where you put it, while icing spread on a standing wall slides and drips, and the white coat is what turns brown gingerbread into a white mansion.
8. Build the cupola on the deck and coat the columns
Lay the deck on parchment. Pipe icing along the bottom edges of the two square cupola walls and stand them on the dotted square in the middle of the deck, facing the long edges. Tuck the two narrow side walls between them. Pipe icing along the top edges, lean the four roof triangles together into a point, and push a pretzel stick into the tip for a spire. Then cut the pretzel rods against the two column guides on page 3, four at each length, spread white icing over the eight pieces, lay them on parchment and leave everything to set.
Why this matters: the cupola is built on the deck, not on the roof, so the deck and the cupola become one piece you can lift off later.
9. Stand the four walls on the board
Mark a spot on the board a little toward the back, so the porch and yard have room in front. Pipe icing along the bottom and side edges of the front wall and stand it, then add a side wall behind each end, tucked inside the front wall. Close the box with the back wall. Prop the corners with two cans and leave the walls for 2 hours before anything goes on top.
Why this matters: a 4 inch wall is tall for gingerbread, and the roof pushes out on the tops of the walls, so they need the full 2 hours before they carry it.
10. Set the four hipped roof panels
Pipe a thick line of icing along the top edges of all four walls. Set the front roof panel on the front wall with its long edge along the outside and lean it in, then do the same with the back panel. Pipe icing up the slanted ends and set the two side panels between them, so all four meet at the corners. Hold each one for a minute, then fill the four corner seams with icing.
Why this matters: the four panels lean on each other at the corners, so a hipped roof holds itself up once the seams set, with no ridge to balance.
11. Pipe the roof shingles
With grey icing and the round tip, pipe rows of small scallops across each roof panel, starting at the bottom edge and working up, so each row overlaps the one below. Pipe a thick grey line up each corner seam to hide it. Let the house set overnight.
Why this matters: the grey roof against the white walls is the contrast that makes the house read as a mansion, and the corner lines cover any gap at the seams.
12. Stand the columns and set the porch floor, balcony and porch roof
Glue one porch slab flat on the board against the front wall for the porch floor. Pipe four dots of icing on it at the spots marked on the template and stand the four longer columns in them. Pipe icing along the back edge of a second slab and between the two lower grey lines on the front wall, and lower it onto the columns for the balcony. Stand the four shorter columns on the balcony right above the lower ones, then set the third slab on top of them, against the wall just under the roof, for the porch roof. Prop the front edges with cans for 2 hours.
Why this matters: the columns take the weight at the front and the wall takes it at the back, and because each upper column stands straight over a lower one, the weight goes down in a straight line to the porch floor.
13. Pipe the balcony railing, the door and the trim
With thick white icing, pipe a line between the upper columns a little above the balcony, then short upright strokes from the balcony up to it, close together, for the railing. Pipe a grey arched door inside the grey arch on the front wall, a white frame with a small peak on top around every window, and a stack of small white blocks up each corner of the house.
Picture a ten year old who wants a turn here. Railings are forgiving, because no one counts the spindles, and a wobbly one only makes the house look older.
Why this matters: the railing and the columns are the two details that make a white box read as a Southern mansion and not a plain house.
14. Lay the yard, the path, the fence and the stones
Spread a thin layer of grey icing over the board around the house, a section at a time, and sprinkle the crushed chocolate wafers over it while it is wet. Press a path of graham cracker squares from the porch to the front edge. Stand pretzel sticks close together in a line of icing across the front, on each side of the path, pipe two black rails across them, and stand a few small graham headstones in the soil.
Why this matters: the icing under the crumbs holds the yard in place, so you can carry the board later without the soil sliding off.
15. Set the deck and cupola on the roof
Lift the deck by its edges and lower it onto the opening at the top of the roof, centered, so the cupola stands straight. Do not glue it. Press down gently and check that it does not rock; if it does, scrape a little icing off the high corner of the roof.
Why this matters: a deck that sits flat keeps the cupola straight, and leaving it loose is what makes the lighting step possible.
16. Light the haunted mansion
Lift the deck and cupola straight up. Switch on an LED tea light, lower it through the opening with kitchen tongs, and set it on the floor in the middle of the house. Put the deck back, and all fifteen windows glow green. Use only battery lights. A real candle inside sugar and butter walls can scorch them, which is why we light every house with batteries. Let the finished house 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.
Haunted Mansion 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 Cupola Lifts Off
The mansion at Disneyland is a grand white house in the old Southern style. When the designers were planning it, they studied old plantation houses and landed on the Shipley-Lydecker House in Baltimore as a model. What makes it read as that house, even shrunk to a few inches, is three things: the white walls, the columns and balcony across the front, and the little cupola on top. This design keeps all three and leaves out everything else.
The roof is where most gingerbread mansions go wrong. A pitched roof on a house this tall is two big panels that have to balance on a ridge while the icing sets. A hipped roof is four smaller panels that slope in from all four walls and lean on each other at the corners, so each one holds up its neighbors. Stopping the four panels short of a point leaves an opening on top, and that opening is what lets the house light up.
The cupola stands on its own loose deck, so lifting it is like lifting the lid of a box: the light goes in through the roof, and the deck covers the gap so no one can tell it was ever open. It is a small version of the trick the park’s music box plays this year, when its roof lifts to show what is inside. Picture a family who just got home from a fall trip to Disneyland and wants a piece of it on the table. Lifting the cupola to switch on the glow becomes the moment everyone gathers for, and it is the same idea as our castle towers built from flat pieces: a few simple shapes doing a lot of work.
Troubleshooting
If it goes wrong, most problems come from pieces that spread in the oven, from loading icing before it has set, or from a damp kitchen, so here is what to look for and what to do about it.
| What you see | Why it happens | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The walls lean out at the top | The roof went on before the walls had set | Push them upright, prop all four sides with cans and give them the full 2 hours before the roof. |
| The roof panels leave a gap at a corner | A panel spread in the oven and was not trimmed | Fill a gap under 1/4 inch with thick icing and cover it with the grey corner line. Shave a panel that is too wide with a knife. |
| The deck falls into the roof | The roof opening came out wider than the deck | Pipe a thick ring of icing around the top edge of the opening, let it set, and the deck will rest on it. |
| The deck rocks or the cupola leans | One corner of the roof stands high | Scrape the high corner, or press a dab of icing under the low side of the deck and let it set before you lift it again. |
| The balcony or porch roof sags at the front | A column is short, or the slabs were not propped | Lift that end, add a dab of icing on top of the short column and prop the slab for 2 hours. |
| A column will not stand | The icing dot on the board was too thin | Pipe a bigger mound, stand the column in it and hold it for a minute. |
| The white coat cracked or crazed | It went on too thick, or the walls were moved before it dried | Spread a second thin coat over the cracks. Once it dries, nobody will see them. |
| A green window browned or bubbled | It stayed in too long, or you are at high altitude | Check from 5 minutes. The white window frames hide small bubbles at the edges. |
| 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. |
| The cookie crumbs turned soft or dull | A damp kitchen | Lay the yard on the last morning and keep the house away from the stove and the dishwasher. |
If a wall still will not stay upright, our help for when walls lean or slide works on any house.
Easier Versions: No-Bake and Kit Shortcuts
If even one batch of dough is too much this year, the same mansion works two simpler ways. If small children are doing most of the work, build the no-bake version. If you already have a kit in the house, use the kit shortcut.
A No-Bake Graham Cracker Mansion for Small Kids
Graham crackers make a smaller mansion with no oven at all. Stand two whole sheets for the front and back and two half sheets for the sides, glued with royal icing, and coat them white once they have set. Lay two half sheets on top as a flat roof, stand a small graham box on it for the cupola, and pipe green windows and a grey door instead of candy. Pretzel rods and two half sheets make the porch and balcony. A graham cracker house glued with royal icing holds up far better than one glued with tub frosting, so use the real thing.
Picture a five year old who wants to help but cannot wait two days. Build the graham box with them in the morning, and they can pipe the windows and scatter the cookie crumb yard that afternoon. The gingerbread version can be the grown-up project for the weekend.
The Kit Shortcut
A plain boxed kit gives you two tall walls and two roof panels to start from. Use the kit’s front and back walls as they are, coat them white, and stand them with its side walls. Lay the roof panels flat on top instead of pitched, stand a cupola cut from leftover pieces on top, and add the pretzel columns and porch slabs cut from the kit’s pieces with a serrated knife, a gentle sawing stroke at a time. Expect a break or two when you cut kit pieces, so cut a spare. Pipe green windows where the kit has none, and if you want to see which kits stand straight before you buy, our spooky season kits that are in stores now are a good place to start.
Dress It for Halloween, Then for the Holidays
The park’s version stays up from Halloween through the holidays, and yours can too. In October, the cookie crumb yard, the fence and the headstones are all it needs, and you can add a few baked gingerbread tombstones if you want a full graveyard. When December comes, dust the roof and the yard with powdered sugar for snow and pipe small green wreaths on the door and the balcony. If you want a second house for the same table, a crooked house from Halloween Town sits well beside it, and our guide to spooky gingerbread houses has more ideas for the yard.
Storage Instructions
Humidity is what softens gingerbread and makes cookie crumbs go dull, so keep the house 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 lift it out before you put the house away.
Treat it as a decoration once it has stood out for a few days. Royal icing made with raw egg whites is never cooked. If you plan to eat some, the FDA recommends pasteurized eggs or egg products for anything made with raw eggs, so make the icing with meringue powder instead.
FAQ
Is this the official Haunted Mansion gingerbread house?
No. It is our own mansion in that style, with no characters, ghosts, logos or park artwork. The white walls, the columns and balcony, and the cupola are what make people think of the ride. Best Gingerbread Houses is an independent site and is not affiliated with Disney.
When can you see the gingerbread house at Disneyland?
It is on the ballroom table inside Haunted Mansion Holiday, which runs from late summer through the holiday season. In 2026 the overlay returned on August 21 with the new music box house. Check Disneyland’s site for the dates on the day you go.
How big is the finished house?
The mansion is 5 inches wide and 3 1/2 inches deep, or about 4 3/4 inches deep with the porch, and about 7 inches tall to the top of the cupola, a little more with the spire. It fits a 12 inch square board with plenty of room for the yard.
Can I use a real candle inside?
No. Use a battery LED tea light, because the house is sugar and butter walls under a gingerbread roof, and a flame inside it can scorch them.
Can you eat a haunted mansion gingerbread house?
The gingerbread is edible when fresh, but this is built as a display piece, and hard candy and pretzels are choking risks for very small children. Royal icing made with raw egg whites is never cooked, so 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 and the walls become 6 1/4 by 5 inches, the house about 8 3/4 inches tall, and the columns need to be cut at 2 1/4 and 1 7/8 inches. The pieces come to about 166 square inches, which one batch of dough still covers. The roof opening grows too, so the tea light goes in even more easily.
More Gingerbread House Builds and Recipes
If the mansion made you want another house from the parks and films, there are nine famous Disney homes to build, from a cottage in the woods to an ice palace. Set the mansion beside them for a Disney village, or give it a spooky street of its own. And when you are ready for a bigger challenge, the hipped roof trick works on any square house.
Find Your Next Build With Best Gingerbread Houses
The mansion proves the point we come back to on every build: a few strong shapes tell the whole story. When you want a head start next time, our guide to kits whose walls stand up on the first try sorts the ones that stay standing from the ones that do not, so you can spend your time on the columns, the railing and the glow.