Miniature gingerbread house cupcake toppers out of gum paste are fabulously festive, outrageously charming, and entirely edible.
I made these miniature gingerbread houses in the same shapes as I make my actual gingerbread houses, and even used the same printable gingerbread house templates (just printed at 25% of the usual size)!
I'm a sucker for anything miniature, and I love all things gingerbread, and I have a particular passion for only using edible cupcake toppers. So these cupcakes were pretty much destined to happen at some point. This is my chalet style gingerbread house.
And my classic A-frame gingerbread house!
How to Print Gingerbread House Templates at Smaller Sizes to Make Miniature Gingerbread Houses:
I did this on my Mac, and it's been a few years since I last used a Windows machine regularly, so there might be some slight differences, but this description should get you pretty close.
You can find my printable gingerbread house templates on my other gingerbread house posts:
Chalet Style Gingerbread House
Open up the print window for the PDF gingerbread house templates. Click on the More Settings arrow to see the Scale option (circled in green). Choose custom, and set at 25 (%). Hit the print button.
How to Make a Miniature Gingerbread House out of Gum Paste:
Cut out the tiny gingerbread house templates.
Color gum paste (I like Satin Ice brand best) brown (I love Americolor's gel food coloring).
Roll out a very thin layer and cut into gingerbread house shapes using the miniature templates.
Let the pieces dry--at least for a few hours, but preferably overnight--before assembling.
I assembled the miniature gingerbread houses using royal icing, just like I use for real gingerbread houses.
I usually use pre-made disposable piping bags these days, but for many years, we made our own icing cones out of parchment paper. When you're doing incredibly fine detail work with royal icing, making your own teeny tiny parchment icing cone is still the way to go. It gives you so much more control, and you can make the hole even smaller than the smallest icing tips.
Decorating Miniature Gingerbread Houses:
I decorated my miniature gum paste gingerbread house cupcake toppers with royal icing, a variety of sprinkles, and some tiny gum paste embellishments.
The miniature candy canes I used were made by rolling thin snakes of red and white gum paste, twisting them together, then cutting and shaping them into tiny candy canes. But if I'd had any of these candy cane sprinkles on hand, I absolutely would have used those instead! They even taste like peppermint candy canes.
I love these little miniature gingerbread house cupcakes so much!
I think the miniature gingerbread houses were my favorite cupcake toppers from this set, but with all of those other cute miniature options, it's hard to choose.
But if you want to see some REALLY impressive edible cupcake toppers, check out these amazing snow globe cupcakes! I can't wait to try that incredible technique.