It's easier than you think to build a magical gingerbread house with Jane Hornby's step-by-step guide. Photographs by Philip Webb

Reproduced from January 08 issue of Good Food magazine. Subscribe now and save 40 per cent

Gingerbread kits really don't compare with making your own deliciously spicy gingerbread house from scratch. Make sure you bake any leftover dough for the biscuit tin or to hang on the tree!

Prep time: 1 hr plus drying
Cook time: 12 mins

For the gingerbread
250g/9oz unsalted butter
200g/8oz dark muscovado sugar
7 tbsp golden syrup
600g/1lb 5oz plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tsp ground ginger

To decorate
200g bag flaked almonds
2 egg whites
500g/1lb 2oz icing sugar, plus extra to dust
125g pack mini chocolate fingers
generous selection sweets of your choice (choose your own colour theme!)
1 mini chocolate roll or dipped flake
few edible silver balls (optional)