Christmas decorations on board Cunard's Queen Mary 2.Picture date: Friday December 15, 2017.Photograph by Christopher Ison ©07544044177chris@christopherison.comwww.christopherison.comImage provided to Cunard with a licence providing full global marketing rights to use this image for advertising, marketing and PR for five years from date of shoot.

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Bring the taste of European Christmas markets into your own home with this festive recipe from the Cunard kitchen. Our Executive Chef, Nick Oldroyd, shares how to make the traditional gingerbread house, complete with snowy frosting and colorful confections to decorate.

Ingredients

Makes one gingerbread house (or several gingerbread shapes).

For the dough

  •  250g butter
  • 200g muscovado sugar
  • 7 tbsp. golden syrup
  • 600g plain flour (all-purpose flour)
  • 2 tsp. bicarbonate of soda
  • 4 tsp. ground ginger

For the Royal Icing

  • 2 egg whites
  • 500g icing sugar (confectioners’ / powdered sugar)

Method

  1. Place the butter, golden syrup and muscovado sugar into a pan and melt until incorporated.
  2. Sift the flour into a large bowl, then add the ginger and bicarbonate of soda.
  3. Add the melted butter, syrup and muscovado sugar into the flour mix and bring together to form a dough.
  4. Rest the dough for 40 minutes, then roll out to your desired thickness and cut into shapes (there are various gingerbread house templates online, or you can use the dough to make gingerbread people, Christmas trees, stars, or even Cunard Queens!)
  5. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake at 180 ◦c for about 12- 14 minutes (time will depend on biscuit thickness). Leave to cool before decorating.

Final touches

To assemble, pipe along the edges of the shapes before joining together. Leave the house to dry, using supports, for a few hours before adding the roof, and then again before adding the decorations. We suggest dolly mixtures, liquorice allsorts and flaked almonds, but the choice is yours!

 

Grey silhouette of a person's head and shoulders

Chef Nick's top tip: "Ensure your Royal Icing is stiff – a runny icing will make assembly difficult."

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