A pink gingerbread house is the one you keep seeing in shop windows this year: pastel walls, a white roof dripping with frosting, peppermints and a warm glow from inside. The ones on the shelf are resin or clay. This one is real gingerbread.
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 pink comes from the icing, not the dough, and the guide explains why. And the windows are melted peppermints, so when a tea light goes in, the house glows pink, not yellow.
You will end up with a cottage about 5 1/2 inches tall, made from one batch of dough in four sessions over two days, plus a no-bake version. Start with the template, then the pink, the plan and 16 steps.
Pink Gingerbread House: At a Glance
- Difficulty: Medium. There are only six pieces from one batch of dough. The skill is in the icing: mixing an even pink and flooding it smooth.
- Total time: about 1 1/2 days, in four sessions. Most of it is icing drying.
- Active time: about 5 1/2 hours, counting the dough chill and the bake.
- Makes: a gable-front cottage 4 1/2 inches wide, 6 inches deep and about 5 1/2 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, 4 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
- Pink gel food coloring, plus a speck of violet if you want rose
- About 20 red and white peppermint candies
- A few spoonfuls of pastel confetti sprinkles, pink sanding sugar, 2 mini candy canes and 6 mint green gumdrops
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 two side walls.
- Cut the front wall and its round window, and mark the door.
- Cut the back wall and the two roof panels.
- Bake at 300 degrees F, then melt crushed peppermints into the windows.
- Trim every piece against the template while it is warm.
- Mix the pink a shade lighter than you want and test a dot.
- Flood the walls pink and the door a deeper pink while they lie flat.
- Flood the roof panels white and shower them with sprinkles, then leave everything overnight.
- Stand the four walls on the board and wait 2 hours.
- Set the two roof panels and wait 4 hours.
- Pipe the frosting drips and set the peppermints along the ridge.
- Pipe the white trim around the door, the windows and the roof edges.
- Add the candy canes and shrubs, 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.
Free Printable Pink Gingerbread House Template
The template is three US Letter pages with six 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 | 4 1/2 in wide, 5 1/2 in to the peak | A round window cut out for peppermint glass, and an arched door you mark but do not cut. |
| Back wall | 1 | 4 1/2 in wide, 5 1/2 in to the peak | One round-top light doorway, 1 3/4 inches wide, so a tea light slides in from behind. |
| Side wall | 2 | 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in | Two arched windows each for peppermint glass. The side walls tuck between the front and back. |
| Roof | 2 | 6 1/2 x 3 1/2 in | Meet at the ridge. A grey guide line marks where the wall top sits, so you know where the drips will hang. |
The sizes are worked out so the house goes together without trimming. The side walls are 3 1/2 inches tall, the same as the eaves of the front and back walls, so the roof rests evenly on all four. The roof rises 2 inches over a half width of 2 1/4 inches, a pitch of about 42 degrees: steep enough to look like a storybook cottage and gentle enough that an iced panel stays put while the glue sets. Each 3 1/2 inch roof panel leaves about 1/4 inch hanging past the wall, which is exactly the ledge the frosting drips hang from. All six pieces come to about 120 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 dotted lines are guides that you never cut. If you want a different shape next time, more free house patterns print and fit the same way.
Why the Pink Goes on the Icing, Not the Dough
The first idea most people have is to dye the dough pink. It does not work, and it helps to know why before you buy the coloring. Gingerbread is brown before it ever sees the oven, because molasses, brown sugar and ground spice are all brown. Pink dye stirred into a brown dough just makes a muddy tan. Even a pale sugar cookie dough browns at the edges as it bakes, the same browning that gives any cookie its golden color, so a pink dough comes out of the oven with brown rims.
So this house keeps the gingerbread you know, with its strength and its smell, and wears its pink on the outside. Every wall is flooded with pink royal icing while it lies flat, which gives a smooth, even coat that never touches the oven and so never browns. The roof is flooded white and showered with pastel sprinkles, the look of the lit pink houses sold for display, but this one is cookie all the way through.
The windows finish the job. Crushed red and white peppermint candies melt into a frosted glass with pink swirls, cloudier than fruit candy glass, so the light inside comes out a soft pink, not yellow. If you would rather have clear glass, pink or red fruit hard candies melt clearer and glow a deeper rose. Picture a family that builds the same cottage with yellow candy windows. It is pretty, but it glows like any gingerbread house. With peppermint glass, the light matches the walls, and the whole house glows the same color.
How to Mix a Pink That Stays Pink
A pink house lives or dies on its icing, and three habits do most of the work. Add color a little at a time on a clean toothpick, because gel coloring is strong and you cannot take it back out. Mix it a shade lighter than you want, since royal icing darkens as it dries, as Wilton’s coloring guide notes. And mix all the pink you need in one bowl, because a second batch is very hard to match on the wall beside the first.
For this house, one toothpick dip per cup of icing gives a blush, two or three give the bubblegum pink of the shop-window houses, and a deeper rose for the door takes a few more dips with a speck of violet. To check, pipe a dot on parchment, cover the bowl and wait 30 minutes before you judge it. If you would rather skip dye, sifted freeze-dried strawberry powder tints icing a soft, natural pink, though it will not reach a bright one.
Two more habits keep it looking fresh. Let the pink crust over before you pipe white right beside it, or the colors can bleed into each other. And keep the finished house out of a sunny window, because pinks can fade in strong light over time. Our seven pink Dreamhouse designs use the same bowl of pink, if you want a bigger project later. Pick your shade below and the mixer gives you a starting recipe for your bowl.
Pink Shade Mixer
Pick the pink you want and how you are coloring it. You get a starting recipe for your bowl and the test that tells you when to stop.
Your pink
Starting points, not exact recipes: gel brands differ in strength, and the swatches are screen approximations. Add color a little at a time and judge a dried test dot. Nothing you choose leaves your browser.
What You Need for the Pink House
You need one batch of dough, two batches of royal icing, a bag of peppermints and a little pastel candy. Everything else is kitchen gear you probably own.
For baking
- 1 batch of our construction-grade gingerbread dough. The six pieces come to about 120 square inches, and one batch covers about 225, so there is room for re-rolled scraps and a spare piece.
- About 20 red and white peppermint candies: about 12 crushed for the five windows and 8 whole ones for the ridge, unwrapped.
For the icing
- 2 batches of royal icing that sets rock hard, made one at a time. Most of the first is thinned for flooding and tinted pink for the walls, with a cupful made deeper for the door. The second stays white: some thinned to flood the roof, the rest kept thick for gluing, drips, trim and snow.
- Pink gel food coloring, plus a speck of violet if you want a rose door.
- Two small round tips, one for gluing and drips, one finer for trim.
For the decorations
- A few spoonfuls of pastel confetti sprinkles for the roof.
- Pink sanding sugar for sparkle on the snow.
- 2 mini candy canes and 6 mint green gumdrops for shrubs.
Tools
- Rolling pin with 1/4 inch guide strips, parchment and 2 half sheet pans
- Paring knife, scissors and a ruler
- 4 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 four sessions over two days, for about 5 1/2 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 flooded pieces need a night to dry before they stand.
| When | What you do | Hands-on | Then wait |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Print, make and chill the dough, cut, bake and trim, melt the peppermint windows, then mix the pink and flood the walls pink and the roof white once the pieces are cool. | About 3 1/2 hours with chilling and baking | 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 | Pipe the drips and trim, set the peppermints, add the candy canes and shrubs, snow the board and light it. | 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 when friends arrive on Sunday evening. You bake on Saturday morning and flood the pieces after lunch, so they dry overnight. On Sunday you stand the walls at 9, set the roof at 11:30 and decorate after a late lunch, with the light going in just as it gets dark. The planner below does that arithmetic for any date you choose.
Pink Gingerbread House Build Day Planner
Pick when you want the pink 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 Pink 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 pink smooth and the roof on.
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.
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 the size of the template.
3. Roll the dough and cut the two side walls
Roll a disc on parchment to an even 1/4 inch between guide strips. Lay the side wall pattern on it, cut around it and cut out the two arched windows, then cut the second side wall the same way. 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 before it ever reaches the oven.
4. Cut the front wall and mark the door
Roll the second disc and cut the front wall, a rectangle with a pointed top. Cut out the round window. For the door, do not cut: trace around the arched door on the paper pattern with a toothpick, pressing just hard enough to leave a line in the dough.
Why this matters: a door cut out of the front wall would let the light pour out of the bottom and weaken the wall right where it stands. A traced door stays solid and still shows, because it gets its own deeper pink.
5. Cut the back wall and the two roof panels
From the same sheet and the re-rolled scraps, cut the back wall with its round-top light doorway, then the two roof panels from page 1. Put the roof panels on their own pan.
Why this matters: the roof panels are the biggest pieces and have no candy in them, so baking them on their own pan means you can leave them in until they are fully firm without waiting on the windows.
6. Bake the pieces, then melt peppermints 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 about 12 peppermints in a zip bag and crush them with the rolling pin. Pull the pan with the side walls and the front wall out about 5 minutes early, fill each window two crushed candies deep, and bake again until the candy has melted flat and glassy, checking after 5 minutes.
This is the same way you turn hard 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.
Peppermints melt cloudier than fruit candies, so expect a frosted, pink-swirled pane rather than a clear one. That soft glow suits a pastel house. For clearer glass, swap in pink or red fruit hard candies.
Why this matters: melted candy is far hotter than the cookie around it, and it burns fast once it pools. Pale glass also shows a scorch more than amber glass does.
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. 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.
8. Mix the pink 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 10 seconds. Tint it with pink gel a toothpick dip at a time, stirring all the way to the bottom of the bowl each time. Spoon a cupful into a second bowl and make it a few dips deeper, with a speck of violet if you want rose, for the door. Pipe a dot of each on parchment, cover both bowls and wait 30 minutes.
Why this matters: the dot shows the color the house will dry to, not the color in the bowl, and a covered bowl stays smooth while you wait.
9. Flood the walls pink and the door a deeper pink
Pipe a thick pink outline around the edge of each wall and around each window, then flood the space inside with pink and nudge it into the corners with the offset spatula. On the front wall, flood around the traced door and leave it bare. Once the pink has crusted over, about an hour later, flood the door with the deeper pink. Leave the windows and the light doorway bare, and let the walls dry flat overnight.
Why this matters: flooding a wall while it lies flat gives a smooth coat with no drips, and waiting for the crust keeps the two pinks from bleeding into each other at the edge of the door.
10. Flood the roof white and shower it with sprinkles
Make the second batch of icing and thin about a third of it for flooding, keeping the rest thick and covered. Outline and flood both roof panels white, stopping at the grey line on the lower edge, and while the icing is still wet, shake pastel confetti sprinkles over it from high up so they land evenly. Leave the roof flat overnight with the walls.
Why this matters: sprinkles only stick to wet icing, and flooding the roof flat is the only way to get an even shower of them. Stopping at the grey line keeps that strip bare for the 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 inches from the front edge, so there is room for the candy canes 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 pink faces never need to be touched while the glue is wet.
12. Set the two roof panels
Pipe a thick line of icing along the sloped edges of the front and back walls and the top edges of the side walls. Lay the first roof panel on with an even overhang at the front and back, and hold it for a minute. Set the second panel so its top edge butts against 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 roof is the heaviest part of the house, and the 4 hour wait is what lets the wall joints take its weight before anything else goes on top.
13. Pipe the frosting drips and set the peppermints
Fill a bag with thick white icing and the larger tip. Along the bare strip at each eave, squeeze a short line that runs down over the edge, then stop pressing and pull away, so each drip ends in a little bead. Vary the lengths a little as you go. Then pipe a line of icing along the ridge and press the whole peppermints into it in a row.
Picture a seven year old taking a turn on the drips. Some come out long and some short, and it looks better that way, because real frosting never drips evenly.
Why this matters: the drips are what make the roof read as frosting, not snow, and the peppermints cover the ridge seam, which is the one joint you can see from every side.
14. Pipe the white trim
With thick white icing and the fine tip, pipe a frame around the door and each window, and a small dot for a doorknob. Pipe a row of small scallops or dots along the sloped roof edges on the front and back walls. Work around the house in one direction so you never lean on wet trim.
Why this matters: crisp white lines against pink are what make the house look finished, and they hide any rough edge where the candy met the cookie.
15. Add the candy canes and shrubs, and snow the board
Stand a mini candy cane on each side of the door, pressed into a dab of icing at its foot. Set three mint green gumdrops on each side of the door as shrubs. Spread the rest of the thick white icing over the board in soft swirls for snow, and while it is wet, sprinkle a pinch of pink sanding sugar over it.
Why this matters: pink sugar on white snow carries the house’s color out onto the board, so the whole piece reads as one pink scene and not a pink house on a plain plate.
16. Light the pink 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. The four side windows and the round window glow pink. Use only battery lights. A real candle inside sugar and butter walls can scorch them, which is why our guide sticks to LED lights inside a gingerbread house. Let the finished house stand overnight before you move it.
Troubleshooting
If it goes wrong, most problems come from the icing color, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| The pink dried darker than you wanted | Royal icing darkens as it dries | Mix a shade lighter next time and judge a dot after 30 minutes. A darker pink still looks good on the door. |
| The pink looks streaky | The color was not stirred all the way through | Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and stir until no streaks show, before you flood anything. |
| The door pink bled into the wall | The wall pink was still wet | Wait until the wall has crusted, about an hour, before you flood the door. A white frame hides a soft edge. |
| The flood icing runs off the edge | It was thinned too far, or the outline had a gap | Stir in a spoonful of powdered sugar and re-pipe the outline. Wipe the drip with a damp brush before it dries. |
| The sprinkles bunched in one corner | They were dropped from too low | Shake them from higher up while the icing is wet. Once it crusts, they will not stick. |
| 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 toward the eave | It was let go too soon | Lift it back up, add icing and hold it a full minute. |
| The drips run all the way down the wall | The icing is too thin | Stir in powdered sugar until a drip stops where you stop pressing. |
| The peppermint 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. |
| The pink faded after a week | Strong light on the house | Move it away from sunny windows. Keep a little leftover pink sealed in the fridge for touch-ups. |
Easier Versions: No-Bake and Kit Shortcuts
If baking is too much this year, the same pink house works two simpler ways.
A No-Bake Graham Cracker Pink House for Small Kids
Graham crackers make a smaller pink house with no oven at all. Stand four half sheets on end in a box, glued with royal icing, and lean two whole sheets on top as a roof. Once it sets, pipe or spread pink icing on the walls, white on the roof with sprinkles, and use pink candy wafers for windows. A graham cracker house with no baking 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 a pink house right now. Build the graham box with them in the morning, let it set over lunch, and they spread the pink and shake on the sprinkles that afternoon. The gingerbread house can be the grown-up project for the weekend.
The Kit Shortcut
Any plain kit with a pitched roof turns pink the same way. Build it as usual, let it set overnight, and flood or spread the pink over the kit’s walls with an offset spatula. Kit walls usually have no window openings, so pipe window shapes in white and fill them with pink icing instead. Add the white roof, the drips, the peppermints and the candy canes from the steps above. The kits guide at the end of this page sorts the ones that stay standing.
Storage Instructions
Humidity is what softens gingerbread and makes sugar and candy sticky, so keep the pink house in a cool, dry room, away from the stove, the dishwasher and sunny windows. The sun matters twice here, because strong light can also fade the pink. 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 dye gingerbread dough pink?
Not really. Gingerbread is brown from molasses, brown sugar and spice, so pink dye just turns it a muddy tan, and even pale doughs brown at the edges in the oven. That is why this house keeps brown dough inside and wears its pink as icing.
Why did my pink icing dry darker?
Royal icing darkens as it dries, so the bowl always looks lighter than the wall will. Mix a shade lighter than you want and judge a dot on parchment after 30 minutes.
How do I keep a pink gingerbread house from fading?
Keep it out of direct sun and strong light, which can fade pinks over time. A dry room helps too, because damp air softens the icing and dulls its finish.
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 pink gingerbread house?
The gingerbread is edible when fresh, but this is built as a display piece, and hard candy and gumdrops 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 inches tall. Every piece still fits, because the side walls tuck between the front and back at any size. The pieces come to about 185 square inches, which one batch still covers with a little to spare, and you will need a 12 inch board and a few more peppermints.
More Gingerbread House Builds and Recipes
If the pink house made you want another, the ice palace with candy glass walls uses the same melted candy trick on a much bigger scale. Make a few small ones for a shelf with our mini gingerbread house ideas, or set the pink house at the end of a lane and build a pastel village street. For more looks worth borrowing, browse our gingerbread house ideas. And when something sags, our fixes for a leaning wall work on any house.
Build Your Next House With Best Gingerbread Houses
The pink house proves the point we come back to on every build: a few strong details tell the whole story. Here it is a smooth pink coat, a frosting roof and windows that glow the same color as the walls. When you want a head start next time, our guide to the kits that hold up best sorts the good boxes from the wobbly ones, so you can spend your time on the pink.