Ask a kid what gingerbread house they want this year, and the answer is often a game they play every day: a block house, a mushroom house, a fort with ramps.
The trouble is that almost nothing online shows you how to build one. Search and you mostly find in-game builds, licensed kits and photos of finished houses. We designed these nine around plain kits, our free templates and grocery-store candy.
The trick that makes every one work is simple. Each game world is known for one shape: a block, a ball, a mushroom cap, a checkerboard, a dome. Get that one shape right and the house reads as the game from across the room. We call it the one-shape rule.
The list runs from the most searched game house to the least. Start with the block cottage, or jump to the picker near the end.
1. The Block Cottage From Minecraft
Minecraft’s one shape is the block. Every edge sits on a square grid, the roof steps up in stairs instead of sloping, and the color comes in flat squares, like pixels. A plain sloped kit house never quite reads as the game, because nothing in it is square.
Our full Minecraft build with a free template fixes that with stair-step front and back walls that poke up through the roof, and a roof iced square by square in three greens and two browns. Sugar cubes make the path, and melted blue candy fills the windows like water blocks.
Difficulty: Easy to medium. Start from: our free 3-page Minecraft template, or a plain kit iced in squares for the shortcut.
The short version, step by step
Time: About 1 1/2 days with the template, most of it drying time. The kit shortcut takes about 3 hours.
You need:
- The Minecraft template, or a plain kit for the shortcut
- Royal icing in three greens and two browns
- About 12 blue hard candies for the windows
- About 8 sugar cubes for the path
- Print the template, cut the stepped walls and score a 1/2 inch grid into the roof panels before baking.
- Melt crushed blue candy into the window holes, then trim every piece square while it is warm.
- Flood every other roof square, checkerboard style, and fill the rest once the first squares crust.
- Stand the walls, let them set, then add the roof so the stair steps poke through.
- Lay a sugar cube path to the door.
If it goes wrong: If neighboring squares bleed together, the first set was still wet. Wait until each square has a dry skin before you fill the one next to it.
Tip: Three greens look like grass blocks. One green looks like a painted roof.
2. The Poké Ball House From Pokémon
Pokémon’s one shape is the ball, and the best way to use it is to make the whole house the ball. The red roof is the top half, the white walls are the bottom half, and a black belt runs under the eave with a round button in the middle.
Most kit versions paint a ball on the side of a house and stop there. Our Pokémon gingerbread house builds the ball into the shape instead, and the button is a round window of melted clear candy, so it glows when a tea light goes inside. Peppermint candies make a red and white path to match.
Difficulty: Easy to medium. Start from: our free 3-page Pokémon template, or a plain kit with a red roof and white walls.
The short version, step by step
Time: About 1 1/2 days with the template. The kit shortcut takes about 3 hours.
You need:
- The Pokémon template, or a plain kit
- Red and white royal icing
- About 8 clear hard candies for the round windows
- A small pack of black fondant for the belt and button ring
- About 12 round red and white peppermint candies
- A battery LED tea light
- Cut the front wall with its round button window and bake, then melt crushed clear candy into every round window.
- Flood the roof panels red and the walls white while they lie flat, and leave them overnight.
- Assemble the walls and roof.
- Roll a black fondant strip and press it under the eave all the way around, then add a black ring around the button window.
- Lay the peppermint path and set the LED tea light inside.
If it goes wrong: If the red looks pink, it needs more color and more time. Red icing deepens as it sits, so mix it the day before.
Tip: Keep the belt straight and level. A wavy belt is the one detail that makes the ball look homemade in the wrong way.
3. The Mushroom House From Super Mario
The Mushroom Kingdom’s one shape is the cap: a big red dome with white spots, sitting on a short cream stem. It is the friendliest house on this list, and it is easier than it looks, because the dome is not gingerbread at all.
Gingerbread cannot bend, so we make the cap from crisp rice cereal treat pressed into a bowl, set it on a big round cookie, and coat it in glossy red icing. White candy melt wafers pressed into the wet red become the spots. A plain kit with the roof left off makes the stem.
Say your helpers are four and seven. The older one can press on the spots while the younger one lays the coin path, and the cap goes on last, so nobody has to wait for anything tricky.
Difficulty: Easy. Start from: a plain kit with the roof panels set aside, or the small house pattern on our templates page. For a cap made from gingerbread, follow our full Mario gingerbread house build with a free template.
How to build it, step by step
Time: About 2 1/2 hours.
You need:
- A plain kit or the small template, roof panels set aside
- A round of gingerbread about 7 inches across for the cap base, or a large round cookie
- Half a batch of crisp rice cereal treats and a mixing bowl about 6 inches across
- Cream royal icing: white with a tiny drop of yellow
- Red royal icing, thinned until it flows slowly
- About 15 white candy melt wafers
- About 10 butterscotch discs for the coins
- Green royal icing in a bag with a grass tip
- Build the four walls with no roof and let them set for an hour. Spread cream icing over them and round off the corners with extra icing so the stem looks soft.
- Press the warm cereal treat into the greased bowl, let it cool for 15 minutes, then turn it out onto the round cookie.
- Spoon the red icing over the dome and let it run down the sides. While it is wet, press on the white wafers, big ones low and small ones near the top.
Step 3: white wafer spots pressed into the wet red icing. AI rendering. - Let the cap set for an hour, then lift it onto the stem with a thick ring of icing around the top edge.
- Pipe a door and two round windows on the stem.
- Lay butterscotch coins from the door to the edge of the board and pipe green bushes around the base.
If it goes wrong: If the cap slides off the stem, the icing ring was too thin. Pipe a second ring, press the cap down and prop it with a can for 20 minutes.
Tip: Make the cap wider than the stem by at least an inch on every side. A wide overhang is what makes it a mushroom and not a dome on a box.
4. The Build Fort From Fortnite
Fortnite’s one shape is the build piece. Players throw up square walls, flat floors, sloped ramps and pointed cone roofs in seconds, so a fort that is nothing but those four pieces reads as the game right away.
Graham crackers are already square and already look like planks. Pipe wood grain on them while they lie flat, glue them into two floors with a ramp between them, and cut four triangles for a pyramid roof. No oven needed, and our guide to the graham cracker gingerbread house covers the icing glue.
Difficulty: Medium. Start from: one box of graham crackers, no baking. For a baked fort with a braced ramp and two lit floors, follow our full Fortnite gingerbread house build with a free template.
How to build it, step by step
Time: About 3 hours, plus drying time between floors.
You need:
- One box of graham crackers, about 3 sleeves
- A serrated knife for cutting triangles
- White royal icing, stiff, for glue
- Brown royal icing in a bag with a small round tip
- A cake board or a sturdy piece of cardboard covered in foil
- Powdered sugar for snow
- Lay 16 whole cracker squares flat and pipe brown wood grain lines on each, with a dot in every corner for nails. Let them dry for 30 minutes.
Step 1: wood grain piped on graham squares. AI rendering. - Glue four squares into a box for the ground floor and let it set for 30 minutes. Cut a door into one with the serrated knife first, if you like.
- Glue two whole crackers flat across the top as the second floor.
- Build a smaller box of four squares on top.
- Lean one long cracker from the board to the second floor as the ramp, glued at both ends.
- Cut four triangles from crackers, saw gently, and glue them into a pyramid on the top box.
- Dust with powdered sugar.
If it goes wrong: If a cracker snaps while you cut it, score the line a few times with the knife tip first, then snap it over the edge of the counter.
Tip: Leave one wall of the top box out. An open side makes it look like a build still going up.
5. The Island Cottage From Animal Crossing
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you start on an island in a tent and work up to a little house, with fruit trees outside and a beach all the way around. Its one shape is the round fruit tree beside a small, rounded-roof house, and a bag of Bells by the door finishes the story.
Any small kit can be the house. Ice the walls cream and the roof a soft peach, then make the tree from a ball of green cereal treat on a pretzel rod with red candies pressed in as fruit. A strip of brown sugar sand and blue icing water along one edge makes it an island.
Difficulty: Easy. Start from: any plain kit, or the small house pattern on our templates page. For a cottage with a piped shingle roof, follow our full Animal Crossing gingerbread house build with a free template.
How to build it, step by step
Time: About 2 hours.
You need:
- A plain kit or the small template
- Cream royal icing and soft peach royal icing: white with a drop of orange and pink
- A quarter batch of crisp rice cereal treats, tinted green while warm
- One pretzel rod
- Small round red candies
- Brown sugar for sand
- Blue royal icing, thinned until it flows
- One soft caramel for the bag of Bells
- White flower sprinkles
- Flood the walls cream and the roof peach while they lie flat, and let them crust.
- Assemble the house and let it set for an hour.
- Roll the green cereal treat into a ball, push it onto the pretzel rod and press red candies into it. Stand it in a blob of icing beside the house.
Step 3: the fruit tree, standing in icing. AI rendering. - Spread thinned blue icing along one edge of the board for water.
- Spread white icing over the rest of the board and sprinkle brown sugar on it for sand.
- Warm the caramel in your fingers, shape it into a little sack with a pinch at the top, and set it by the door.
- Scatter the flower sprinkles.
If it goes wrong: If the blue water runs into the sand, it is too thin. Pipe a line of white icing as a shoreline first, then fill the water up to it.
Tip: Put the tree close to the house and a little in front. That one round shape next to the door is what people recognize.
6. The Checkered Hill From Sonic the Hedgehog
Green Hill Zone, the first stage in the original Sonic the Hedgehog, is known for its checkered brown dirt, a loop in the track, palm trees and gold rings. The checkerboard is the one shape, and it is the most satisfying thing on this list to ice.
Build the hill as stair-stepped blocks of gingerbread, flood their faces in a brown and tan checkerboard, and pipe green grass along the top. A strip of brown fruit leather curls into the loop, pretzel rods with green icing fronds make the palms, and yellow gummy rings stand in for the gold ones.
Difficulty: Medium. Start from: one batch of gingerbread dough cut into rectangles, or graham crackers for a no-bake hill.
How to build it, step by step
Time: About 3 hours, plus overnight drying.
You need:
- One batch of gingerbread dough, or a box of graham crackers
- Brown and tan royal icing, thinned until they flow slowly
- Green royal icing in a bag with a grass tip
- One long strip of brown fruit leather
- Two pretzel rods
- Green royal icing in a bag with a small leaf tip
- About 8 yellow gummy rings
- Cut three rectangles of dough in stepped sizes, about 8, 6 and 4 inches long, plus side pieces for each, and score a 1 inch grid on the front faces before baking.
- Flood every other square brown while the pieces lie flat. When those crust, fill the rest tan. Leave them overnight.
Step 2: the checkerboard, half done. AI rendering. - Glue each block into a box and stack them into steps, tallest at the back.
- Pipe green grass along every top edge.
- Curl the fruit leather into a ring, pinch the ends together and stand it in a thick line of icing on the middle step.
- Push the pretzel rods into icing at each end and pipe green fronds out from the tops.
- Stand the gummy rings along the grass.
If it goes wrong: If the loop sags, the fruit leather is too warm. Chill it for 10 minutes and prop it with a toothpick on each side until the icing sets.
Tip: Keep the squares big. At 1 inch they read as checkerboard from across the room. Smaller squares turn into a blur.
7. The Hateno Cottage From The Legend of Zelda
Zelda’s one shape is the cottage Link can buy in Hateno Village in Breath of the Wild: cream plaster walls crossed with dark timber, gray stone corners, a terracotta roof and a tall white chimney. It is the quiet, homey choice on this list, and the most grown-up looking.
Our full Zelda gingerbread house tutorial comes with a free 4-page template checked so the roof and chimney fit, and a path of gingerbread rupee stones. The timber lines are piped on while the walls lie flat, and the roof is shingled in rows of orange-brown icing.
Difficulty: Medium. Start from: our free 4-page Zelda template.
The short version, step by step
Time: About 1 1/2 days, most of it drying time.
You need:
- The Zelda template
- Royal icing in cream, dark brown, gray, terracotta and white
- About 14 yellow or orange hard candies for the windows
- About 20 thin pretzel sticks for the fence
- A battery LED tea light
- Print the template, cut the walls, roof, chimney and rupee stones, and bake. Melt crushed candy into the windows.
- Flood the walls cream and pipe the dark timber lines while they lie flat.
- Pipe gray stones on the corners and leave everything overnight.
- Assemble the walls, roof and chimney, then pipe the terracotta shingles in rows from the bottom up.
- Lay the rupee path, stand the pretzel fence and set the tea light inside.
If it goes wrong: If the timber lines spread, the cream underneath was still wet. Wait for a dry skin before you pipe on top of it.
Tip: Keep the chimney bright white. It is the tallest thing on the house and the detail fans spot first.
8. The Dome House From Kirby
Kirby’s home in Dream Land is a small round dome. In the games it is white, but we ice ours pink, Kirby’s own color, and set a yellow star on top for the Warp Star he rides. The dome is the one shape, and it is the fastest build here.
Like the mushroom cap, the dome is cereal treat pressed into a bowl, set on a round cookie and spread with pink icing. A red door, two round windows and puffy white icing clouds around the base finish it. Most young kids can do every step.
Picture a five-year-old with an offset spatula and a bowl of pink icing, smoothing the dome in big swoops. Lumpy is fine. The clouds hide the bottom edge, and the star hides the top.
Difficulty: Easy. Start from: no kit needed, just one round cookie and a bowl.
How to build it, step by step
Time: About 1 1/2 hours.
You need:
- A round of gingerbread about 6 inches across, or a large round cookie
- Half a batch of crisp rice cereal treats and a mixing bowl about 5 inches across
- Pink royal icing and a small offset spatula
- Red and white royal icing in bags with small round tips
- One star cookie, cut with a star cutter and baked
- Pale blue royal icing for the board and yellow star sprinkles
- Spread pale blue icing over the cake board and let it crust.
- Press the warm cereal treat into the greased bowl, cool it for 15 minutes and turn it out onto the round cookie.
- Spread pink icing over the dome with the spatula, working from the bottom up.
Step 3: pink icing going on from the bottom up. AI rendering. - Pipe a red arched door and two white round windows.
- Press the star cookie into the top while the pink is still soft.
- Set the dome on the blue board, pipe puffy white clouds around the base and scatter the star sprinkles.
If it goes wrong: If the icing slides down the dome, it is too thin. Stir in powdered sugar a spoonful at a time until it holds a peak.
Tip: Press a toothpick into the star from behind before you set it on top. It anchors the star so it stays upright.
9. The Farmhouse From Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley starts when you inherit your grandfather’s old farm, and everything after that is about the farm: a small wooden farmhouse, crop rows out front and a fence around them. Its one shape is the garden plot, so the house can stay simple and the crops do the talking.
Start from our printable farmhouse pattern, pipe the walls as horizontal planks and ice the roof dark red. Out front, crushed chocolate cookies make the soil, piped green sprouts make the rows, and small candy pumpkins ripen among them.
Difficulty: Medium. Start from: the farmhouse template, or any plain kit for the house.
How to build it, step by step
Time: About 3 1/2 hours.
You need:
- The farmhouse template or a plain kit
- Brown royal icing in a bag with a small round tip
- Dark red royal icing for the roof
- Crushed yellow hard candy for the window
- About 30 thin pretzel sticks for the porch and fence
- About 8 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed, for soil
- Green royal icing in a bag with a small round tip
- About 6 small candy pumpkins
- Bake the farmhouse pieces with a window hole, and melt crushed yellow candy into it.
- Pipe horizontal brown plank lines across the walls while they lie flat. Flood the roof panels dark red.
- Assemble the house and let it set for an hour.
- Glue four pretzel sticks upright at the front as porch posts and lay a small cracker or gingerbread strip across them as the porch roof.
- Spread icing over the front of the board and press the cookie crumbs into it for soil.
- Pipe short green sprouts in straight rows and set the candy pumpkins among them.
Step 6: crop rows in cookie crumb soil. AI rendering. - Stand pretzel sticks in icing around the plot as a fence.
If it goes wrong: If the sprouts sink into the crumbs, the icing under the soil is too wet. Let it crust for 10 minutes before you pipe the rows.
Tip: Keep the rows straight with a ruler laid across the board as a guide. Neat rows look farmed, and messy ones look like weeds.
Which Video Game House to Build First
If you have one afternoon and helpers under eight, build the Kirby dome, the island cottage or the mushroom house. If you have a full day, try the build fort, the checkered hill or the farmhouse. If you have a weekend and want a template with every piece measured, take on the block cottage, the Poké Ball house or the Zelda cottage.
Say your gamer only cares about one game. Build that one, even if it is the hardest, and let them choose the colors. A kid who picked the house is a kid who stays at the table.
Which Video Game House Should You Build?
Answer three questions and we will match you to a game house from this list.
How much time do you have?
Who is helping?
Do you want to bake?
For fun and planning only; your build time will vary with your kit, your icing and your helpers. Your answers stay in this browser tab and are never sent anywhere.
Your Video Game House Shopping List
Tick the houses you plan to build and we will merge everything into one list, with shared items counted once.
For planning only. Items and counts come from the build steps in this article; buy a little extra candy for snacking helpers. Your choices stay in this browser tab and are never sent anywhere.
Whichever you pick, three habits save it:
- Make royal icing thick enough to hold up walls, even with a kit or graham crackers.
- Let the walls set before the roof, cap or second floor goes on.
- Light it with battery LED tea lights only, never a candle.
The rest of the basics are in our tips for a first gingerbread build. If your family likes the screen more than the controller, our movie and TV gingerbread houses and Disney homes and castles use the same plain-kit approach.
Video Game Gingerbread House FAQ
Can I buy a video game gingerbread house kit?
Licensed kits do show up some seasons, most often Super Mario ones, but they come and go and are hard to find late in the year. A plain kit plus the one-shape trick for your game gets you a house that looks just as much like the game, and you can make it any game your kid loves.
What is the easiest video game gingerbread house?
The Kirby dome. It needs no kit and no assembly, just a round cookie, a bowl of cereal treat and pink icing, and it takes about 90 minutes. The island cottage and the mushroom house are close behind.
Can I make one without baking?
Yes. The build fort is all graham crackers, and the Kirby dome and mushroom cap are cereal treat. The checkered hill also works with graham crackers in place of dough.
What if my kid wants a game that is not on this list?
Ask them to name the one thing everyone recognizes in that game, then build a plain house and make that one thing big. It might be a color, a block, a door, a tree or a creature’s home. If they would rather build with bricks than icing, LEGO makes a brick gingerbread house set too.
Best Gingerbread Houses is an independent site and is not affiliated with Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, Mojang, Microsoft, Epic Games, Sega or ConcernedApe. The photos on this page are AI renderings of our own build ideas, not game art.
Pick a Kit for Your Game House With Best Gingerbread Houses
Six of the nine houses on this list start from a plain kit or a free template, and the one shape makes them a game. We compare kits so you can pick a sturdy box and save your time for the squares, the spots and the crop rows. When you are ready, look through the gingerbread house kits we rate and choose the one your game house starts from.