A Minecraft gingerbread house is what you make when your kid would rather build in blocks than in gumdrops. The kits on the shelf are small pyramids. This one is a full-size gingerbread cottage where every edge sits on a square grid, so it looks like it came out of the game.
Our house dough and royal icing recipes set every bake temperature and wait, and the free template was checked so the roof sits square. The front and back walls climb in stair steps that poke up through the roof, and the roof is iced square by square so it reads as pixels from across the room.
You will end up with a house about 6 inches tall, made from one batch of dough over two days, plus a no-bake version and a kit shortcut. Start with the template, then the pixel icing, the plan and 16 steps.
Minecraft Gingerbread House: At a Glance
- Difficulty: Easy to medium. Every cut is a straight line on a 1/2 inch grid, so a ruler does all the measuring. The patience goes into the pixel roof.
- Total time: about 1 1/2 days, in six sessions. Most of it is icing drying.
- Active time: about 6 hours, counting the dough chill and the bake.
- Makes: a blocky cottage 5 inches wide, 6 inches deep and 6 inches tall, on a 10 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, 6 piping bags, two small round tips, offset spatula, toothpicks, small cups or cans for propping, 10 inch square cake board, 1 battery LED tea light.
Materials
- 1 batch of sturdy gingerbread house dough
- 2 batches of royal icing
- Green and brown gel food coloring, plus a little yellow
- About 12 blue hard candies, such as blue raspberry
- About 8 sugar cubes for the path, plus a few spares
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 stepped front wall.
- Cut the back wall and the two side walls.
- Cut the two roof panels and score the grid into them.
- Bake at 300 degrees F, then melt crushed blue candy into the windows.
- Trim every piece against the template while it is warm.
- Mix three greens and two browns and test a dot of each.
- Flood every other roof square, checkerboard style.
- Fill the rest of the squares and the door, then leave everything overnight.
- Stand the four walls on the board and wait 2 hours.
- Set the roof panels between the stepped walls and wait 4 hours.
- Pipe snow onto every stair step.
- Pipe the window frames and the corner seams.
- Lay a sugar cube path and snow the board.
- Light the house with a battery 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. Not an official Minecraft product. Not approved by or associated with Mojang or Microsoft. This is our own fan build.
Free Printable Minecraft Gingerbread House Template
The template is three US Letter pages with six pieces, drawn at true size over a faint grid of 1/2 inch squares. 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 in wide, 6 in to the top step | Climbs in four stair steps. Two square windows are cut out for blue candy glass, and a 1 by 1 1/2 inch door is marked, not cut. |
| Back wall | 1 | 5 in wide, 6 in to the top step | The same stepped outline, with a 2 inch square light doorway so a tea light slides in from behind. |
| Side wall | 2 | 5 1/2 x 3 1/8 in | Two square windows each. The side walls tuck between the front and back. |
| Roof | 2 | 5 1/2 x 4 in | Sits between the two stepped walls. Red ticks every 1/2 inch mark the grid you score before baking. |
Every window, the door, the light doorway and every step is a whole number of 1/2 inch squares, so the pieces line up on the grid like blocks. The roof sits at 45 degrees and runs through the inside corner of every step, so the tip of each step stands 1/2 inch above the roof and the stairs show from the side as well as the front. The one size that is not a whole block is the side wall height, 3 1/8 inches. That is the height where a 45 degree roof rests on the top edge, and the extra 1/8 inch hides under the eave. All six pieces come to about 118 square inches, so one batch of dough is plenty.
Solid black lines are cuts, red dashes are openings you cut out, the brown dash and dot outline is the door you only mark, and the grey grid is a guide that you never cut. If you want a different shape next time, our house patterns drawn to true size print and fit the same way.
Why a Stair-Step House
The thing that makes a house look like it came out of a block game is not the color. It is the stairs. In a world made of cubes, a roof cannot slope smoothly, so it climbs in steps, and that stepped edge against the sky is what your eye reads as “blocks” before it notices anything else. So this house puts the stairs on the front and back walls, where you see them first.
The stairs also make the house easier to cut than an ordinary gingerbread house. There is no angle to measure and no slanted gable to line up. Every cut is a straight line along the grid, either across or down, so a ruler and a paring knife do the whole job. A child who can follow a line can cut a wall.
The roof is where the grid pays off a second time. The two roof panels sit between the stepped walls at 45 degrees, so the steps rise above the roof on both ends of the house like stair blocks, and each step gets its own little cap of snow. On the roof itself, the 1/2 inch grid you score into the dough becomes the pixels. Picture a family that builds the same box with a smooth white roof. It is a nice house, but it is just a house. With the steps and the squares, it looks like the build your kid has been making on a screen all year.
Pixel Icing: How to Flood a Roof Square by Square
A pixel roof is just a lot of very small floods, and three habits keep the squares from running together. Use icing a little thicker than usual flood icing, about the 15 second mark, which means a line drawn through the bowl with a knife closes up in about 15 seconds. In a square only 1/2 inch across, that thicker icing holds its own edge without an outline. Then flood the squares in two passes, every other square first like a checkerboard, so no two wet squares ever touch. And let the first pass crust before the second goes in, at least 30 minutes and longer in a damp kitchen, until the squares look matte and feel dry to a light touch.
For the leafy roof in the photos, mix three greens from one bowl of white icing: a dark green, a grass green and a light green with a touch of yellow. Mix each a shade lighter than you want, since royal icing darkens as it dries, as Wilton’s coloring guide notes, and mix all you need of each shade at once, because a second batch is hard to match. The door uses the same trick in two browns, six squares in all.
The scored grid is what keeps it tidy. Each square has a shallow line around it, so the icing has a place to stop, and a crooked square is easy to see before it dries. If your scored lines baked away, pipe each square as a small dab and nudge it to the corners with a toothpick. Pick a roof look below and shuffle until you like the pattern. The pattern maker shows which squares go first and how many of each shade you need.
Pixel Roof Pattern Maker
Pick a look and shuffle until you like it. Tap any square to change its shade. This is one roof panel, 11 squares across and 8 down, the same grid you score on the template.
Icing amounts are our estimate for a thin flood coat, not measured on a build. Mix a little extra of each shade, because a second batch is hard to match. Nothing you do here leaves your browser.
What You Need for the Block House
You need one batch of dough, two batches of royal icing, a few blue hard candies and a box of sugar cubes. Everything else is kitchen gear you probably own.
For baking
- 1 batch of our gingerbread dough for square, flat walls. The six pieces come to about 118 square inches, and one batch covers about 225, so there is room for re-rolled scraps and a spare piece.
- About 12 blue hard candies, such as blue raspberry, unwrapped, for the six square windows.
For the icing
- 2 batches of royal icing you can split into shades, made one at a time. Most of the first is thinned to the 15 second mark and split into three greens for the roof and two browns for the door. The second stays white and thick for gluing, snow and trim.
- Green, brown and yellow gel food coloring.
- Two small round tips, one for gluing and snow, one finer for the frames.
For the decorations
- About 8 sugar cubes for a block path to the door, plus a few spares.
- A little white sanding sugar for sparkle on the snow, if you like.
Tools
- Rolling pin with 1/4 inch guide strips, parchment and 2 half sheet pans
- Paring knife, scissors and a ruler with a clean straight edge
- 6 piping bags, the two round tips, an offset spatula and toothpicks
- A few small cups or cans for propping
- A 10 inch square cake board
- 1 battery LED tea light, 1.5 inches across
How Long It Takes, Day by Day
Plan on six sessions over two days, 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, and the pixel roof needs a night to dry before the panels go up.
| When | What you do | Hands-on | Then wait |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1, morning | Print, make and chill the dough, cut the six pieces, score the roof grid, bake, melt the blue candy windows and trim. | About 3 hours with chilling and baking | Until the pieces are cool |
| Day 1, afternoon | Mix the shades and flood the first pass of roof squares. | 45 minutes | About 30 minutes |
| Day 1, afternoon | Fill the second pass and flood the door. | 40 minutes | Overnight, pieces flat |
| Day 2, morning | Stand the four walls on the board. | 25 minutes | 2 hours |
| Day 2, late morning | Set the two roof panels and seal the ridge. | 15 minutes | 4 hours |
| Day 2, afternoon | Snow the steps, pipe the frames and seams, lay the path, snow the board and light it. | About 1 hour | 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 done for a Sunday afternoon visit from the cousins. You bake on Saturday morning, flood the pixel roof after lunch while the kids pick the pattern, and leave it overnight. On Sunday you stand the walls at 9, set the roof at 11:30 and snow the steps after lunch, so the light goes in just before everyone arrives. The planner below does that arithmetic for any date you choose.
Minecraft Gingerbread House Build Day Planner
Pick when you want the block house 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 Minecraft Gingerbread House Step by Step
Each step does one job, and the "why this matters" lines explain the reasoning behind the steps that keep the walls square and the pixels crisp.
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. Then cut out the paper pieces, including the windows and the light doorway. You need one paper copy of each shape; the side walls and roof panels get cut from dough twice.
Why this matters: the bar is the only way to know the page printed true before you spend an afternoon on dough. On a grid house, a page printed a little small throws every step off at once.
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, square corners and spreads less in the oven, and a block house is all corners.
3. Roll the dough and cut the stepped front wall
Roll a disc on parchment to an even 1/4 inch between guide strips. Lay the front wall pattern on it and cut along each straight edge with the tip of a paring knife held against a ruler, step by step up one side and down the other. Cut out the two square windows. For the door, do not cut: trace around it with a toothpick, pressing just hard enough to leave a line. Pull away the scraps and slide the parchment straight onto a pan.
Why this matters: a ruler keeps every step the same height, and the inside corners of the stairs are where a dragged knife tears. Cutting into each corner from both directions keeps them sharp.
4. Cut the back wall and the two side walls
From the second disc, cut the back wall the same way, with its square light doorway, then the two side walls from page 3, each with two square windows. Keep the walls on parchment and slide them onto the pan with the front wall.
Why this matters: the four walls bake together and come out the same color, so the house reads as one piece of gingerbread.
5. Cut the roof panels and score the grid
From the re-rolled scraps, cut the two roof panels. Lay the paper roof back on the first panel, and with a toothpick, prick the dough at every red tick along all four edges. Lift the paper away, lay a ruler across each pair of matching pricks and press its edge lightly into the dough, about as deep as a fingernail, to score a line. Score every line across and then every line down, for a grid of 11 by 8 squares. Do the same on the second panel and put both on their own pan.
Why this matters: the scored lines are your pixel guides. They soften a little in the oven, so press firmly enough to see them clearly before baking. A light score does not weaken a panel this size, but a deep cut can, so stop at a fingernail's depth.
6. Bake the pieces, then melt blue 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 walls and roof panels take 22 to 30 minutes, until the surface looks matte and the edge feels firm under a fingertip. While they bake, put the blue candies in a zip bag and crush them with the rolling pin. Pull the pan of walls out about 5 minutes early, fill each square window two crushed candies deep, right into the corners, 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 a square pane 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.
Why this matters: melted candy is far hotter than the cookie around it and burns fast once it pools. Pushing the crushed candy into the corners is what gives you a square pane and not a round blob in a square hole.
7. 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, using the ruler again on the steps. 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.
Why this matters: warm gingerbread trims cleanly with a knife, while cooled gingerbread tends to snap exactly where you did not want it to, and on a stair edge that means a missing step.
8. Mix three greens and two browns, and test a dot
Make the first batch of icing and thin most of it a few drops of water at a time, until a line drawn through it with a knife closes up in about 15 seconds. Split it into five small bowls. Tint three of them green: one dark, one grass green, and one light with a touch of yellow. Tint the other two brown, one darker than the other, for the door. Pipe a dot of each on parchment, cover every bowl and wait 30 minutes before you judge them.
Why this matters: three greens that sit close together are what make the roof shimmer like pixels, and the dots show the colors the roof will dry to, not the colors in the bowl.
9. Flood every other roof square, checkerboard style
Fill a piping bag with each green and snip a small hole. Working from your pattern, flood every other square on both panels, so no two wet squares touch along an edge. Squeeze a little icing into the middle of a square and let it spread to the scored lines, nudging it into the corners with a toothpick.
Picture a nine year old in charge of the pattern and a grown-up on the piping bag. The kid calls out "dark, light, grass" square by square, and nobody has to think about which square is next.
Why this matters: two wet squares side by side run into one blob. Flooding every other square means each one sets with its own edge.
10. Fill the rest of the squares and the door
Once the first squares look matte and feel dry to a light touch, at least 30 minutes, flood the squares in between. Then flood the door in the two browns, six squares, alternating them like planks. Leave the roof panels and the walls flat overnight.
Why this matters: the crust on the first squares is a wall for the second ones, so each square keeps a crisp line, and the roof dries flat with no drips.
11. Stand the four walls
Pipe a thick line of white icing along the bottom and side edges of the front wall and stand it on the board, about 2 1/2 inches from the front edge, so there is room for the path and snow. Press a side wall against its back, with the side tucked behind the front, then the second side wall, and close the box with the back wall, light doorway at the bottom. Prop the walls with cups and leave them for 2 hours.
Why this matters: with the sides tucked between the front and back, the four walls square each other up, and the stepped walls stand taller than the sides, which is right: the roof goes between them, not on top of them.
12. Set the roof panels between the stepped walls
Pipe a thick line of icing along the top edge of each side wall and along the inside face of the front and back walls, on the line where the roof will meet them. Lower the first panel in between the stepped walls, its bottom edge resting on the side wall and hanging just past it, and hold it for a minute. Set the second panel so its top edge butts under the first along the ridge, hold it, and pipe a line of icing into the ridge seam. Leave it for 4 hours.
Why this matters: the stepped walls are taller than the roof on purpose, so the panels slot in between them and the glue holds them on three edges, not one. The 4 hour wait lets those joints take the roof's weight.
13. Pipe snow onto every stair step
Fill a bag with thick white icing and the larger tip. Pipe a fat line along the top of every step on the front and back walls, and along the top step, then smooth it a little with a damp fingertip so it looks like snow that settled there. Run a thinner line along the ridge seam too.
Why this matters: snow on each step is the detail that turns a stepped wall into a staircase. It catches the light and makes every step read separately, even from across the room.
14. Pipe the window frames and corner seams
With thick white icing and the fine tip, pipe a square frame around each window and the door. Then pipe a straight line up each corner of the house, where the walls meet, to hide the seams. Work around the house in one direction so you never lean on wet trim.
Why this matters: square white frames keep the windows looking like blocks, and the corner lines hide any icing that squeezed out when the walls went up.
15. Lay a sugar cube path and snow the board
Spread thick white icing over the board in soft swirls for snow, leaving a strip clear in front of the door. Press sugar cubes into the strip two across, in a short path from the door toward the edge of the board, so they sit like stone blocks in the snow. Sprinkle a pinch of sanding sugar over the snow while it is wet, if you like.
Why this matters: sugar cubes already look like little stone blocks, so the path carries the block look out onto the board and frames the door.
16. Light the block house
Switch on an LED tea light and slide it in through the light doorway in the back wall, toward the middle of the house. All six square windows light up. Use only battery lights. A real candle inside sugar and butter walls can scorch them, which is why our guide sticks to a flameless light inside the house. Let the finished house stand overnight before you move it.
Troubleshooting
If it goes wrong, most problems come from the pixels running together, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Two squares ran into one | They were wet at the same time, or the icing was too thin | Flood every other square first and wait for the crust. Stir in powdered sugar until a line closes in about 15 seconds. |
| The scored grid baked away | The lines were too light | Pipe each square as a small dab and nudge it to its corners, or pipe a thin brown grid first and let it crust. |
| A stair step broke off | It was trimmed cold, or lifted before it cooled | Glue it back with thick icing and hide the crack under its snow cap. |
| The steps are not all the same height | They were cut freehand | Trim them warm against a ruler. Snow on top hides small differences. |
| The greens look too alike | The shades were mixed too close | Make the dark green darker and the light one lighter with more yellow. Test dots show it before you flood. |
| The candy pane is round, not square | The candy did not reach the corners | Push the crushed candy into the corners before it melts. A white frame squares up a soft edge. |
| A wall leans while it sets | The icing was soft, or the props came away too soon | Push it square, add stiffer icing inside the joints and prop it for the full 2 hours. |
| A roof panel slides down | It was let go too soon | Lift it back up, add icing along the stepped wall and hold it a full minute. |
| There is a gap under the roof | The side wall is a little short | Fill it with thick icing. The eave hides it from the front. |
| The candy glass 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. |
Building One Inside the Game Instead?
Many of the people searching for a Minecraft gingerbread house want to build one in the game, not the kitchen. If that is you, the video tutorials that come up first walk through it block by block, and most of them use brown blocks for the gingerbread and white blocks for the icing. The real house on this page borrows the same idea, a grid you build on one square at a time, so a kid can build it in the game first as a plan, then bake the one they made.
Easier Versions: No-Bake and Kit Shortcuts
If baking is too much this year, the same block house works two simpler ways.
A No-Bake Graham Cracker Block House for Small Kids
Graham cracker halves are close to square, which makes them a natural fit. Stand four half sheets on end in a box, glued with royal icing, and set a whole sheet on top for a flat roof. Once it sets, cover the roof in green icing squares, or press on square candies, and add a sugar cube path. A graham cracker build that needs no oven lives or dies on the glue, so use royal icing, not tub frosting, for the walls.
Picture a five year old who wants a block house right now. Build the graham box with them in the morning, let it set over lunch, and they press on the squares and the sugar cubes that afternoon. The stair-step house can be the big project for the weekend.
The Kit Shortcut
There are licensed kits too. In our search, a small Minecraft Mini House Cookie Kit was listed at Five Below for about $4, and a Minecraft pyramid house kit from the brand behind many shelf kits came pre-baked with icing and square candies. Both are small, pyramid-shaped houses, so they are good for younger kids and less like the stepped cottage here. To turn any plain pitched-roof kit into a block house, ice the roof in squares of green, frame the windows in white squares and lay a sugar cube path. Our guide to block-toy gingerbread sets covers another build-it-from-blocks take, and the kits guide at the end of this page sorts the boxes that stay standing.
Storage Instructions
Humidity is what softens gingerbread and makes sugar and candy sticky, so keep the block house in a cool, dry room, away from the stove, the dishwasher and sunny windows. Strong light can also fade colored icing over time, so the greens last longer out of the sun. Cover it loosely with a clean cloth if dust is a worry, switch the tea light off when no one is looking, and slide 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 not cooked at any stage. If you plan to eat some, make the icing with meringue powder instead.
FAQ
Can you buy a Minecraft gingerbread house kit?
Yes. Licensed kits turn up in stores in the holiday season, such as a small Minecraft Mini House Cookie Kit at Five Below and a pre-baked pyramid house kit sold at Walmart and baking supply shops. They are smaller than this house and come pre-baked, so they are quicker but less blocky.
How do you make the icing look like pixels?
Score a 1/2 inch grid into the roof before baking, then flood the squares in two passes, every other square first, with icing thick enough to close a knife line in about 15 seconds. Three close shades of one color make the roof shimmer like pixels.
Can I make it without baking?
Yes. Graham cracker halves are close to square, so a no-bake block house from graham crackers and royal icing works well for small kids. Use square candies or icing squares on the roof and sugar cubes for the path.
Can I use a real candle inside?
No. Use a battery LED tea light, because the house is sugar and butter walls under a roof of icing, and a flame inside can scorch them.
Can you eat a Minecraft gingerbread house?
The gingerbread is edible when fresh, but this is built as a display piece, and hard candy and sugar cubes 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 for a house about 7 1/2 inches tall, and every square on the grid grows to about 5/8 inch. The pieces come to about 184 square inches, which one batch still covers, and you will need a 12 inch board and a few more sugar cubes.
More Gingerbread House Builds and Recipes
If the block house made you want another, our castle with four square towers uses the same straight-line cutting on a bigger scale. Make a few small ones for a shelf with our small baked houses for a shelf, or line several block houses up and build a blocky village street. For more looks worth borrowing, browse themed gingerbread house ideas. And when something sags, our fixes for walls that will not stay square work on any house.
Build Your Next House With Best Gingerbread Houses
The block house proves the point we come back to on every build: a few strong details tell the whole story. Here it is a staircase of steps, a roof of tiny squares and windows that light up. When you want a head start next time, our kit picks that survive a build weekend sorts the good boxes from the wobbly ones, so you can spend your time on the pixels.