Haunted Gingerbread House - Halloween

Create a creepy gingerbread house decorated with your favorite candies and cookies. It's a fun project for the entire family!

Yield: about 30 servings

Gingerbread:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup full-flavor molasses
1/3 cup cold water
3 1/2 cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour or unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Decorating Frosting:
1 1/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon full-flavor molasses

Assorted Halloween picks, cake decorations, candies and/or cookies

Heat oven to 350 F. Grease square pan, 9x9x3 inches, and rectangle pan, 12x16x2 inches.

Stir together brown sugar, shortening and molasses in large bowl; stir in water. Stir in remaining ingredients except frosting and candies. Press one-third of the dough into square pan; press remaining dough into rectangle pan.

Bake 1 pan at a time about 15 minutes or until no indentation remains when touched in center. Cool 5 minutes; turn upside down onto large cutting board. Immediately cut as shown in diagram (cut windows if desired). Cool completely.

Prepare Decorating Frosting:
Mix 1 cup of the powdered sugar and the remaining ingredients until smooth. Stir in enough remaining powdered sugar to make stiff frosting. (If frosting becomes too stiff, stir in additional milk.)

Decorate front of house as desired using Decorating Frosting and assorted Halloween picks, Halloween rings, candies and/or cookies. For windows as shown in photo, cut yellow tissue paper slightly larger than outline of windows. Brush paper with vegetable oil and "glue" to back side of windows, using frosting.
Use frosting to attach supports to back of house, sidewalk to front of house, door and sign to front of house and fence to sidewalk. Complete decorating as desired.

Storage:
Your haunted gingerbread house is made from natural ingredients so should be kept for one holiday only. It's so simple to create, you’ll want to make it bigger and better next year.

Source: Gold Medal Flour, a Reg. TM of General Mills, Inc.

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