Making gingerbread houses for Easter

A few years ago we started a new Christmas tradition - homemade gingerbread houses. I would always make two houses, one for each of the children to decorate, and I made the gingerbread from scratch. A bit of a faff but the children loved making them (and eating them!) Last Christmas we were away for quite a bit of the Christmas holiday and I couldn't find the time to make them. This led to much disappointment, so I promised them that we would make Easter gingerbread houses instead. 

So the first day of the Easter holidays found me in the kitchen baking up shaped pieces of gingerbread ready to assemble into two houses! I make the gingerbread pieces a couple of days before so that the gingerbread has time to harden a little. The recipe that I use isn't available online any more but this one is very similar and also includes a printable template - Simple gingerbread house recipe. 

I cut out my pieces using some cutters which I bought in the US a few years back. Buying the cutters felt like a bit of an indulgence at the time but I've used them so often that it was definitely worth it, especially for the one year that I ended up making five houses for a gingerbread house decorating party!

So I present our Easter gingerbread houses! First up we have Harry. He's not a fan of sweets so chose to use chocolate buttons and chocolate eggs.

Meaning that there were plenty of sweets left for Mia, who covered every available space!

I just love how their houses are so different and reflect their little personalities. It's also great that as they get older they can manage more of the decorating themselves, maybe one day they'll be making gingerbread houses for me!