Gingerbread house kits- your reviews

[ja9r]

Find any good ones? I bought B&Ms this ye for £4.99... then remembered too late that it was rubbish the year before. A few years ago I bought from ikea and also from Aldi... remember them being better. So while it's fresh in everyone's head thought I'd ask so can make a note for next year.

I want it to be less than a tenner and able to be assembled by a 12 yo independently... prefer it if they come with sweets / embellishments already provided but could be swayed...

I bought one from Sainsbury not realising the actual gingerbread needed to be made first! It's still in the pantry.

I bought the set of three mini houses this year from Tiger, they were really good, we each did one, they were reasonably easy to put together and not too much to eat later on

I bought the Tiger regular sized one for £1. No sweets or icing with it. The kids loved it and it all got eaten.

We had the Waitrose one, think it was £10, you had to make the gingerbread but it was straightforward. The icing mixture was tricky to make but once made it did a far better job of holding the pieces together than any other kit we've tried. House was tiny but enough for 4 people to eat in one day.

The Tesco one was a fiver. Gingerbread and sweets and icing all in box. Looked good. Tasted a bit like chewy, ginger flavoured cardboard. One wall got eaten and the rest binned. But it was always about the making so that was fine.

We got Ikea last year. Ready made sides, no icing and no sweets. We could not get it to stick together. Nil points.

This year we got an Aldi one, ready made, formed into a house, with extra icing and sweets (we added more). The kids 10 and 6 have loved decorating it. I think it was £3.49. However, we haven't eaten it yet so can't give an opinion on taste.

Ikea was the best tasting I have ever had in my life. It was proper gingerbread, almost as good as how my old German dinner lady used to make it back in the old days when dinner ladies could bring treats in for school kids.

We bought the John Lewis one, it was more expensive at £12 but the gingerbread tastes amazing.

These are the only ones we've ever had that tasted nice. Actually they were delicious. Small one is £10 + p&p. www.thegbhouse.co.uk/Gingerbread%20house%20shop.htm

We had a tiger one that turned out to be broken in the box. Got an IKEA one instead. No sweets or icing but it tastes good.

We add boiled sweet windows and use Mary Berry recipe for icing. I’ve read that white choc can be used on the inside to build it as it dries faster than icing, but I’ve never tried. The trick to getting it up is to get the first two walls in place. Once they are stable the rest will follow. Give a few minutes before doing the roof and do one side at a time. .

We usually have the asda one and it never sticks properly but the kids are happy to eat the separate parts of it once they've decorated with sweets. Bought the b and m one this year it was awful wouldn't stick at all even tried with melted white chocolate when the icing failed to hold it. It ended up completely mangled so went in the bin the kids just ate the sweets. Will try the aldi one next year I think!!

We got 2 cheap ones from Morrison’s- they were an independent brand but can’t remember what it was called- but they were brill. Pre-made, sweets and icing included and came with a base that made them easy to assemble. They were quite small but excellent value and tasty- our best ones yet!

We got the Ikea one and just by chance I spotted a decorating kit in the food section of Ikea when I went to get salmon out of the freezer. It had white icing "glue" which worked brilliantly to hold the house together and had red and green to decorate, also smarties and snowflakes. I don't know why they didn't have the decoration stuff next to the house kit in the main section of Ikea as I think it would have been hard to stick it together otherwise. The house was absolutely delicious when we ate it!

We always get ours from Lidl and have never had a problem with getting them to stand up (propped up with toothpicks from the inside). Icing, sweets and little figures all included. You do need an icing bag though. I bought one four years ago and only ever use it for the gingerbread house at Christmas - don't regret the purchase though - think the icing bag was £5 and the gingerbread house was £5.

As far as I'm concerned Christmas hasn't started until Lidl brings out their gingerbread houses!

We had the IKEA one. DD2 decorated with icing, matchmakers and dolly mixtures and put it together with leftover royal icing when I was doing the Christmas cake. She did a great job and it was demolished and scoffed while we watched a film last night.

Gingerbread is easy to make though. I might do my own next year.

Tesco £4.99
Came with everything needed.

We enjoyed got the Sainsbury’s one. You have to make the gingerbread first. I don’t think it will be edible as it’s so hard you’d lose a tooth.

Lidl here. Gingerbread was a bit odd but the dcs were happy with it. Easy to put together (with toothpicks as pp said) and looked good afterwards.

We had the Ikea one, the decorating kit and ‘glue’ were separate, but on the same shelf.

It passed an hour on and DC3 enjoyed it. Cost £5.50 for all 3 bits IIRC.

Another vote for the Lidl one. Compared to previous years it came with virtually no sweets (greatly acclaimed on the packaging as being Haribo), but a packet of icing sugar and quite a few sugar figures and decorations. It was easy to assemble. I added a bag of dolly mixtures and a gingerbread stars and this was the result. The kids love eating this type of gingerbread but I'm not so fond...

Ikea one is great! Bits are made and fit together well. They sell icing glue too to use if needs be, but I just make royal icing (icing sugar, egg white and a little water) and that sticks the structure fine.

No sweets included, which means we can choose whatever we want to add from the sweetie aisle in supermarket. This suits us well.

(Our elf even made one! Was surprising to find it in the morning!)

For kits without “glue” - if icing isn’t sticking then melted/boiled sugar works very well (though better fine by an adult than a child obviously).

We had Ikea and it tasted great - didn’t spot these decorating kits though!

The Tesco one was yummy. The roof fell off quite soon but it came with a tray which held the walls in place well.

We had the Aldi ready assembled ones for £4.99. They were brilliant. Came with an icing bag filled with icing and two bags of sweets. DC (5 & 8) could just get straight on with decorating. Gingerbread was soft and tasty. Will definitely get them again.

IKEA one here too. Very easy to assemble with the Dr Oetker baking glue which was next to it on the shelf. Squeezy tube much easier than the sachets which we’ve had previously.

Melted sugar burns are some of the very worst that you can get, because when the hot sugar sticks it carries on burning you for a long time. Please be super careful. Royal icing dries rock solid and is easier to manipulate.