How to Assemble a Gingerbread House With Melted Sugar
Assembling a gingerbread house can be one of the trickiest parts of the entire process. You’ve baked and decorated all your pieces, only to discover that the walls don’t want to stay together.
Many people use royal icing to assemble their gingerbread houses, but I find that it doesn’t provide a strong enough hold. Instead, I recommend using melted sugar as edible glue. It creates a strong bond that sets almost immediately, making it much easier to build a sturdy and stable gingerbread house.
The method is simple, but there is one important thing to remember: melted sugar gets extremely hot. Be very careful while working with it and always keep the pan out of reach of children.
What You Need
You only need one ingredient:
200 g / 1 cup granulated white sugar
You’ll also need a pan. I prefer using a cast iron pan because it holds the heat well, but any pan will work.
Step 1: Melt the Sugar
Add the granulated sugar to your pan and place it over low heat.
Let the sugar slowly melt. You don’t need to stir it much — simply give it time to melt on its own.
Once the sugar crystals have melted and the sugar starts turning golden, your gingerbread house glue is ready to use.
Keep the pan over low heat while you work so the sugar stays liquid.
Step 2: Dip the Gingerbread Pieces
Take the first gingerbread piece and carefully dip the edge that needs to be attached into the melted sugar.
You only need to coat the edge that will connect to another piece.
Because the melted sugar is extremely hot, keep your fingers well away from the sugar itself.
Step 3: Join the Pieces Together
Press the sugar-coated edge against the corresponding edge of the other gingerbread piece.
Hold the pieces together for a few seconds while the sugar cools and hardens. It sets very quickly, so you won’t need to stand there holding your walls together for several minutes.
Continue with the remaining pieces until your gingerbread creation is fully assembled. If you’re using one of my templates, you’ll find specific assembly instructions showing which pieces should be joined together and in what order.
Why Use Melted Sugar Instead of Royal Icing?
The main reason I prefer melted sugar is simple: it’s strong and it sets quickly.
Royal icing is perfect for decorating gingerbread houses, but it can be frustrating when you’re trying to use it as structural glue. Melted sugar creates a much stronger bond between the gingerbread pieces, making it particularly useful for larger or more complicated gingerbread creations.
It’s also completely edible, unlike some other strong alternatives.
How to Clean Melted Sugar From the Pan
Don’t worry if your pan looks like it’s covered in rock-hard sugar when you’re finished. It’s surprisingly easy to clean.
Boil some water and carefully pour it into the pan, or use very hot water from the tap. The hot water will begin dissolving the hardened sugar.
Stir, pour out the sugar water and repeat the process if necessary. Eventually, all the remaining sugar will dissolve.
An Alternative: Use a Hot Glue Gun
If you don’t want to work with hot melted sugar — and you’re not planning to eat your gingerbread creation — another option is a hot glue gun.
Hot glue provides a very strong hold and makes assembly easy. Just remember that once you’ve used it, your gingerbread house should be treated as a decoration rather than something to eat.
Ready to Assemble Your Gingerbread House?
Once your gingerbread pieces are baked, fitted, decorated and ready to go, melted sugar makes turning them into a finished structure quick and straightforward.
For the complete process from preparing your template to adding the final decorations, read my How to Make a Gingerbread House: A Step-by-Step Guide.
Or browse all printable gingerbread templates → to choose your next gingerbread project.