Why Gingerbread Houses Fall Apart, and What to Do Instead
Making a gingerbread house sounds simple enough.
Bake or open the pieces. Add icing. Stand up the walls. Put on the roof. Decorate.
Then reality sets in.
One wall leans.
The roof slides.
A child presses one piece of candy a little too hard and the whole thing shifts.
Suddenly, what was supposed to be a fun family Christmas activity feels more like a construction project.
If this has happened in your house, you are definitely not alone.
In fact, the frustration of trying to keep a gingerbread house assembled is part of what inspired Miranda Vaughn to create Tomte Cake in the first place.
You can read Miranda's story here:
Read Miranda's full story here.
Why Do Gingerbread Houses Fall Apart?
There is not usually one single reason.
Gingerbread houses are surprisingly dependent on a number of small things going right at the same time.
The Icing Has to Be Strong Enough
The icing that holds a gingerbread house together is doing more than decorating.
It is basically the glue.
If it is too thin, too warm or has not had enough time to set, the walls can begin sliding before the structure has a chance to stabilize.
That can be especially challenging when kids are eager to start decorating immediately.
The Pieces May Not Line Up Perfectly
Even small gaps between gingerbread pieces can make assembly difficult.
If one wall is slightly uneven or the roof does not sit flush against the sides, the icing has to work even harder to hold everything together.
With homemade gingerbread houses, tiny differences in baking or cutting can make alignment even more difficult.
The Roof Is Heavy
The roof is often the trickiest part of the entire project.
Once the walls are finally standing, two large pieces of gingerbread have to sit at an angle on top of them.
Add icing and candy, and the weight increases.
If the walls or icing are not completely stable, gravity tends to win.
Decorating Can Put Pressure on the Structure
The part kids are waiting for is also the part that can bring everything crashing down.
Pushing candy into icing, adding frosting or simply bumping the table can place pressure on a gingerbread house that has only recently been assembled.
Sometimes everyone spends more time trying not to break the house than actually enjoying decorating it.
The Activity Can Become More About Construction Than Christmas
There is nothing wrong with building a traditional gingerbread house.
For plenty of families, the challenge is part of the fun.
But if what your family really loves is the decorating, baking, candy and time together, there may be an easier way to keep those parts of the tradition.
That was the idea behind Tomte Cake.
Instead of assembling separate cookie walls and a roof, the house shape is baked directly in a reusable cake pan.
The Tomte Cake Set is available here:
What If You Baked the House Instead?
Tomte Cake changes the order of the activity.
Instead of:
Build. Wait. Repair. Decorate.
the experience becomes:
Read. Bake. Hide. Decorate. Find.
The baking pan creates the house shape for you, so there are no walls to glue together and no roof pieces to balance.
Once the cakes come out of the pan, they are ready for the part most kids have been waiting for.
Decorating.
The official Tomte Cake site describes the houses as no-assembly required, which is exactly what makes the experience different from a traditional gingerbread-house kit.
You can learn more about how Tomte Cake works here:
The House Is Actually Dessert
Another common gingerbread-house dilemma comes after the decorating is finished.
Do you eat it?
Traditional gingerbread houses can sit on display for days, which is great if the goal is decoration.
It is not always ideal if the family was hoping for dessert.
Tomte Cake is baked as a cake from the beginning.
The family gets the visual fun of decorating a Christmas house, but the finished creation is meant to be eaten.
You can use the official Tomte Cake recipe or experiment with other cake flavors.
The recipe is available here:
The Tomte Cake FAQ also notes that families can use a boxed cake mix and that gluten-free flour replacements can be used with the recipe.
FAQ:
The Hidden Tomte Adds Another Reason for Kids to Pay Attention
The house itself is only part of the experience.
Before baking, Tomte is hidden inside one of the cakes.
That means the children are not simply waiting to decorate.
They are waiting to find out where Tomte is hiding.
The storybook introduces the adventure, the family recreates it in the kitchen, and eventually someone discovers the hidden Tomte.
It adds a little suspense to an activity that might otherwise end when the last piece of candy is added.
Decorating Gets to Be the Main Event
When you remove the assembly step, decorating becomes much more relaxed.
Kids can cover their cakes in frosting.
They can add candy.
They can make snow from powdered sugar or coconut.
They can create a perfectly coordinated Christmas cottage or something that looks completely ridiculous.
Either one works.
There is no roof to knock loose.
There are no walls to hold in place.
There is less pressure for the finished house to look perfect.
The goal becomes having fun with it.
A Better Fit for Younger Kids
Traditional gingerbread-house assembly can require quite a bit of patience.
That can be difficult for younger children who are excited to decorate but do not necessarily want to wait while an adult holds four walls together.
A baked house lets younger children move more quickly into the creative part of the activity.
They still get the Christmas-house experience, but much of the structural work has already been handled by the pan.
Tomte Cake's own customer reviews include families using the activity with children across a wide range of ages, including toddlers, older children and adults.
You Can Still Make It as Elaborate as You Want
Choosing an easier way to make the house does not mean the final creation has to be simple.
Families who love decorating can make incredibly detailed Tomte Cakes.
Add piping.
Create windows and doors.
Build snowy landscapes.
Use candy canes, gumdrops, berries, pretzels or whatever else belongs in your family's Christmas kitchen.
The difference is that you can spend that effort decorating instead of assembling.
And You Can Use the Pan Again Next Year
One of the original frustrations Miranda has talked about with traditional gingerbread-house kits was the amount of waste involved.
Tomte Cake uses a reusable aluminum baking pan that can come back out year after year.
That changes the experience from a one-time kit into something that can become part of the family's Christmas routine.
One year might be traditional gingerbread.
The next could be chocolate.
Another year might become a decorating competition.
Kids can remember who found Tomte last year and argue about who is going to find him this time.
That is often how traditions begin.
Gingerbread Houses Are Supposed to Be Fun
There is nothing wrong with a gingerbread house that leans a little.
Sometimes the disasters make the best family stories.
But if your family has reached the point where the annual gingerbread-house project creates more frustration than fun, there is no rule saying you have to keep building it the same way.
Keep the decorating.
Keep the candy.
Keep the Christmas-house tradition.
Keep the family gathered around the kitchen table.
Just bake the house instead.
Tomte Cake was created to bring some of the fun back to a holiday tradition families already love.
See the Tomte Cake Set here:
Shop The Tomte Cake Set
Learn more about Tomte Cake here:
Visit The Tomte Cake