About Bake a House

Why I built it

Most printable gingerbread house templates are drawn as if the walls had no thickness. Real dough is 5 to 8 mm thick, so the side walls end up too long, the corners gape and the roof sits crooked. I wanted templates that work out every piece from your measurements and your dough thickness, so the house comes out the size you chose.

How I calculate the templates

I generate every template from the same geometry that draws the 3D preview, so what you see is what prints.

• Front and back walls are full width. Side walls fit between them, so they are shortened by twice the dough thickness.
• The roof panel on one side is extended past the ridge by the dough thickness divided by the sine of the two roof angles added together. It covers the edge of the other panel, so the ridge closes without a gap.
• Dough is estimated from the area of every piece times its thickness, at about 1.25 g per cm³, plus 30% for rerolling scraps.
• Candy for windows is estimated from the window area times the dough thickness, at about 1.5 g per cm³, rounded to hard candies of about 6 g.
• Pieces too big for one sheet are split into tiles that overlap by 12 mm, and every page has a scale bar so you can check the print size.

Free, with no sign-up

Every design, size and PDF is free to use for baking, crafts and classrooms. I don't use cookies or accounts on the site. The privacy policy and terms have the details.