Get yourself and your family into the haunted holiday spirit with this eye-popping spooky gingerbread mansion, courtesy of Ella B. of the popular sugar art blog, One Cake A Day.

Materials

1 pre-baked Wilton Haunted Mansion Kit
#3 decorating tip + the tips in the Wilton kit
Black confetti sprinkles (optional)
Black icing
Brown icing
Craft knife or paring knife
Decorating Bag
Decorators brush
Food-safe pencil or marker
Granulated sugar
Gum-Tex
Large/small veining tool
Leaf green icing
Piping gel
Red Nonpareils
Ruler
Small rose petal gumpaste cutter
Small spatula
Violet color dust
White rolled fondant, 24 oz.
White royal icing

Instructions

1. Using a craft knife, trim all the gingerbread house pieces; make sure that the edges are soft and that all pieces in pairs are equal in size. If you need to trim one to fit the other it will be fine.

2. Assemble the house following the instructions in the kit and with the black icing in the kit.

3. Tint 5 oz. of fondant in black, 8 oz. in medium grey , 8 oz. in light grey, 2 oz. in medium brown, and the remaining 1 oz. in leaf green.

4. Roll out the medium grey fondant 1/16 in. thick; cut ⅜-in.-by-2-in. long strips. In addition, cut strips 1 1/2 in. long, and 1 in. long. After you cut the strips, place them in a cake board and cover them with plastic wrap to keep them moist. Cut as many strips the fondant allows.

5. Repeat the process for the light grey fondant.

6. Using food-safe pencil or marker, draw the windows and doors (follow the final picture at the end of this tutorial).

Start covering the house:
7. Using rolling pin and granulated sugar, roll out the orange spice drops (the ones in the kit) very flat. Once the spice drop is flat, cut the rectangles and cover the windows. Attach with piping gel or grey icing (the one in the kit).

Return to the fondant:
8. Place one of the strips in a plastic board, and using the small veiner tools, mark long straight and curved lines mimicking the veins in the wood.

9. Attach the light grey strips and medium grey strips to the house using piping gel and brush until you cover the complete house, avoiding the windows and door. The strips don’t have to look perfectly straight — remember is a spooky hooooouuuuse!

10. Once you finish covering the house with the fondant strips, cover the hole in the house roof. Roll out the green fondant 1/16 in. thick and attach following the hole pattern.

11. Roll out the brown fondant 1/16 in. thick. Cut 3/16 in.-by-2-in. strips and attach on top of the green fondant to simulate the damaged roof.

12. Roll out a ¼-in. log in brown fondant and attach all around the roof edge. Make marks mimicking blocks using the small veining tool.

Start covering the roof:
13. Follow the instructions on the Gum-Tex can and add it to the black fondant.

14. Roll out the black fondant 1/16 in. thick, and using the small petal cutter, cut out petals. If you want to cut many petals at once, keep them covered with plastic wrap because the Gum-Tex will make them harden faster.

15. Brush the back of the petal (medium to upper back side) with piping gel and attach to the lower roof edge. After you attach the upper petal part, push up the lower edge of the petal to curl it up. Attach petals all around the lower edge of the roof. Once you finish with the lower edge, add one row on top, semi-covering the first one and staggering the petals until you cover the complete roof.

Add the details to the windows:
16. Roll out a 3/8 in.-by-2-in. thick log and add it to the lower edge of the middle window. Repeat the process for the additional windows with 1/8 in. logs.

17. Roll out the remaining brown fondant 1/16 in. thick. Cut it and mark it with the small veining tool to make it look like wood. Attach to cover the door.

Almost done! Just add the details:
18. Roll out the remaining black fondant 1/8 in. thick and cut plaques to add to the windows. Let them dry. When dry, using black and white icing, decorate the windows and attach the plaques to the windows’ upper edge.

19. Attach candy with black icing to roof, windows and door. Model crow and cat in black fondant and attach them to the house with black icing. Use red nonpareils for the eyes.

NOTE: The sides and back can be completely covered with the wood strips, or you can use the
additional spice drops in the kit to add more windows and doors. If you don’t have too much time to spend decorating, just leave the back uncovered, but always cover the sides.

For more tutorials and Halloween inspiration, check out Ella’s blog, One Cake A Day.