Gingerbread Camper House Recipe with Template

Looking for a unique twist on traditional gingerbread houses? Our gingerbread camper house recipe comes with a free template to help you craft a whimsical, delicious creation

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

Are you in need of a festive and delicious treat that will bring the holiday spirit to your home? We got this crazy idea to construct a gingerbread camper.

This delightful twist on the classic gingerbread house is perfect for those who love all things camping and want to add a touch of adventure to their holiday celebrations.

Luckily, our friend Monica of  Paper Flour Ink is literally a detail-oriented genius and swooped in to help save the day to help us execute the idea. She was also the brains behind the magnificent Eiffel Tower gingerbread house.

So with our free template, creating this adorable edible masterpiece has never been easier. Gather your ingredients, roll up your sleeves, and get ready for a fun-filled baking experience that will leave everyone amazed by your culinary skills!

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

Ingredients Needed to Make a Gingerbread House

There are several different type of gingerbread house recipes out there for gingerbread houses. Having a solid construction grade gingerbread recipe is really important to make sure that the cookie isn’t too soft to hold it’s shape. This particular recipe is very durable and meant more for building than eating, but it’s totally still edible!

All-purpose flour (and more for flouring surface) 

Honey 

Granulated sugar

Eggs

Cinnamon

Ground cloves 

Nutmeg

Ground ginger

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

How to Make a Construction Grade Gingerbread House Recipe

Cream eggs and sugar together in a stand mixer with a dough hook rather than the paddle attachment.

Then, add the honey and spices.

Mix in flour, 1 cup at a time until mixed. Note that the dough will be very stiff. 

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for one hour.

Lightly wipe down the counter with a wet paper towel and place a large piece of foil on top (the water helps it stay put).

Flour your working surface and roll out the dough with a rolling pin to 1/8” thick on the foil or parchment paper.

Place your printed template on the gingerbread dough and cut with a pizza cutter.

Be sure to cut out all the windows and doors too!

Transfer the foil to a baking sheet and bake the sides of the house pieces first and let them cool.

Bake at 325ºF for 15 – 20 minutes for side pieces (until golden brown).

For the edge pieces that you will curve, bake for 8-9 minutes until they’re just starting to darken.

For the edge pieces, you’ll need to work quickly while the pieces are still warm and bend to create the curve of the camper before fully cooled.

Let all pieces cool to room temperature before gluing them together with royal icing. Let the royal icing harden for 4-5 hours before decorating.

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

 

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

Downloadable and Printable Camper Gingerbread Camper Template

When it comes to cutting out the shapes from your construction grade gingerbread recipe, you’ll want to make sure you have the templates. Below are the free printables for the gingerbread house template, but be sure to print them to scale. 

Camper template

Edge pieces template

When assembling the pieces, make sure to ice the sides of your gingerbread camper BEFORE you assemble them for flooding the icing on an easier flat surface.

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

How to Assemble the DIY Camper Gingerbread House Windows

The trickiest part of this gingerbread house is assembling the edible candy windows. To create edible gingerbread house windows, you’ll need crushed butterscotch hard candy. 

1 — When you’re using the gingerbread house template, cut out windows and doors before baking gingerbread dough. Then, bake the pieces per the instructions above.

2 — Once cooled, place the pieces needing “glass” on foil on a baking sheet. Fill with crushed butterscotch candy and bake at 350ºF for about 5 minutes, until candy has melted.

3 — Let them cool thoroughly, overnight is best, before removing from baking sheet/foil. Voila, you have edible windows!

4 — To make the windows illuminate, we used small battery operated twinkle lights to sit inside the camper.

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

Thick Royal Icing Recipe for Building a Gingerbread House

For this gingerbread house template, we used two different types of icing.

A thick royal icing for building/gluing the pieces together, and a thinner royal icing for “flooding” the colored sides. 

Ingredients needed:

3 tablespoons meringue powder

4 cups powdered sugar

6 tablespoons water

Instructions:

1 — Mix all of the ingredients together and then store them in an air-tight container. Makes 3 cups of icing.

2 — Use this icing to bond the sides of your gingerbread house together.

You can use the same recipe but with additional tablespoons of water to decorate the sides of your gingerbread camper before assembling them. 

Making your own royal icing as so easy, but also a good skill to know since it’s used in so many desserts. 

We also have a paintable royal icing recipe that’s useful to have.

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

 Decorating Ideas for a Homemade Gingerbread House

The sky is really the limit when it comes to what you can use to decorate your gingerbread camper house. This is a rough idea of what we used for the individual decor elements for ours —

  • Rug and fence: Green sour belts and champagne bubble jelly beans
  • Tree: Waffle ice cream cone covered in green royal icing and sprinkle bulbs
  • Tree on top of the camper: Green Rice Krispies treat with a pretzel rod trunk and twine wrapped around
  • Presents: Old fashioned candy mix wrapped in twine
  • Wreath: Green Rice Krispies treat with sprinkles and a red fondant bow
  • Wheels: Gingerbread cookie circles, pink melting chocolates, and jumbo confetti circles
  • Flamingo: Pink jelly bean and white floral stems with pink food marker
  • Toe hitch: Gingerbread V with striped candy cane and pink sprinkle
  • Fire: Candy rocks, pretzel sticks, and orange and yellow ribbon candy
  • String lights: Lime green twine and candied sunflower seeds glued on with royal icing
  • Lawn chair: Woven sour belts, graham crackers, and candy cane feet help together with royal icing
  • Sand: A mixture of brown sugar and coarse organic sugar

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

How to Display a DIY Camper Gingerbread House

To put your creations together, you can adhere them all to foamboard or a sheet of thin, sturdy wood with royal icing. We actually even ended up displaying ours in a white lacquer tray for our Christmas party so that we could contain the sand easily!

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

 

I realize this is quite the undertaking, but at least you can bask in the awesomeness of ours if you don’t want to spend hours on your own gingerbread house template!

Years later after our original creation, there has been a big trend with campers and RV’s. So you can also buy several store-bought camper gingerbread house templates now!

Here and here are the best places to buy gingerbread houses. What’s the craziest gingerbread project you’ve ever made in the name of a Merry Christmas?

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

More Fun Christmas Projects to Try

And in case you’re new around here, here are a few of my all-time favorite Christmas projects to go with your gingerbread house decorating —

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

DIY retro camper gingerbread house and recipe - sugar and cloth

Gingerbread Camper House Recipe

Print Recipe
4.80 from 25 votes
Nothing says happy holidays like a homemade gingerbread house, and we've got the template and recipe to help you recreate your own gingerbread camper.
Total Time6 hours
Course Desserts
Cuisine Gingerbread House

Equipment

Ingredients

For the construction grade gingerbread house:

  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 5 cup all-purpose flour and more for flouring surface
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • 1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tbsp ground ginger

For the candy windows:

  • Crushed butterscotch candies

For the thick royal icing for assembling:

  • 3 tbsp meringue powder
  • 4 cup powdered sugar
  • 6 tbsp water

Nutrition

Calories: 6101kcal | Carbohydrates: 1407g | Protein: 92g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 491mg | Sodium: 388mg | Potassium: 1210mg | Fiber: 21g | Sugar: 912g | Vitamin A: 731IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 256mg | Iron: 34mg
Servings: 1
Calories: 6101kcal

Instructions

For the construction grade gingerbread house:

  • Cream eggs and sugar together in a stand mixer with a dough hook rather than the paddle attachment. Then, add honey and spices. Mix in flour, 1 cup at a time until mixed. Note that the dough will be very stiff. 
    Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
  • Lightly wipe down the counter with a wet paper towel and place a large piece of foil on top. (The water helps it stay put).
    Flour your working surface and roll out the dough with a rolling pin to 1/8” thick on the foil or parchment paper.
  • Place your printed template on the gingerbread dough and cut with a pizza cutter. Be sure to cut out all the windows and doors too!
  • Transfer the foil to a baking sheet and bake the sides of the house pieces first and let them cool. Bake at 325ºF for 15-20 minutes for side pieces (until golden brown).
  • For the edge pieces that you will curve, bake for 8-9 minutes until they're just starting to darken.
  • With edge pieces, you'll need to work quickly while the pieces are still warm and bend to create the curve of the camper before fully cooled.
  • Let all pieces cool to room temperature before gluing them together with royal icing. Let the royal icing harden for 4-5 hours before decorating.

For the candy windows:

  • When you're using the gingerbread house template, cut out windows and doors before baking gingerbread dough. Then, bake the pieces per the instructions above.
  • Once cooled, place the pieces needing “glass” on foil on a baking sheet. Fill with crushed butterscotch candy and bake at 350ºF for about 5 minutes, until candy has melted.
  • Let them cool thoroughly, overnight is best, before removing from baking sheet/foil. Voila, you have edible windows!

For the thick royal icing:

  • Mix all of the ingredients (meringue powder, powdered sugar and water) together. Then, store them in an air-tight container if not assembling right away. Makes 3 cups of icing.
KEYWORD: gingerbread camper, gingerbread house

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93 thoughts on “Gingerbread Camper House Recipe with Template”

  1. Template is super cute, but the dough is a poor recipe and very difficult to work with. Recommend the construction dough in joy of cooking instead.

    Reply
    • Hi Lu! No, there are not any other dry ingredients! The recipe has been corrected. Thank you for catching that! No one ever has.

      Reply
    • Hi. In looking at the be ding part for the middle of the camper, it appears to be way too long with the other bottom peices. What am I missing?

      Reply
    • Hi Jeanine! To get the mint color, we just had to slowly mix in green gel coloring with a bit of yellow. It was a lot of testing to slowly get the color that we wanted!

      Reply
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  9. Wow, thank you so very much for sharing!! I look forward to giving it a try this holiday season – of course I don’t have access to some of those very cool sweets – I especially like the candied sunflower seeds!! – but I will see what I can substitute. Happy holidays!!

    Reply
    • Thank you, Alexandra! You can definitely substitute a lot of the candy on gingerbread houses. I would try looking on Amazon too!

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  11. Hi there, wondering what kind of icing you used to decorate the body of the camper and if you have any tips to make it looks this beautiful! Thanks.

    Reply
  12. This is so fantastic I just had to make it!
    However, step by step instructions and photos of actually putting the pieces together would be helpful. And of the icing process – do you ice first then put it together, or vice versa?
    I am persevering without instructions but having a difficult time of it. Have made about 3 separate curved pieces as they keep breaking – how do you prevent this?

    Reply
  13. My daughter and I are making the retro camper and I am am unsure how to do the butterscotch windows. Am I baking on top of gingerbread window that was cut out?

    Reply
  14. Is the outside of the trailer decorated with royal icing (flood) or with fondant? I’m trying to figure out how to cover the curved parts.

    Reply
  15. Hi! What an amazing camper. Quick question…did you cover the camper in fondant icing or royal icing. It so hard to tell and id like to recreate this for our christmas this year. Thanks

    Reply
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  18. This is so amazing! Thank you for sharing all the details how to make it. I have always wanted to make a “different” gingerbread house and nothing caught my eye until I saw this beautiful creation.

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  19. I just discovered this wonderful post via Facebook – what a great gingerbread house, and the instructions are so detailed – thanks so much and keep up the fab work!

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  20. This is simply awesome! We have a 1961 Shasta reissue trailer (in red), and I wish there was a way I could undertake something like this. I especially love the tree on top–the Rice Krispies give it a perfect texture. My only criticism would be that the trailer hitch is on the wrong end, but I’ll bet not many people notice that. Great job!

    Reply

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