Today I’m sharing a stunning design for a gingerbread village cake, just in time for Christmas. I had so much fun creating this cake, and I just love how it turned out. Now, I didn’t actually use gingerbread cookies, but rather my favorite recipe for soft chocolate shortbread cookies, that I embossed before baking, and then iced with vanilla glaze to highlight the details.
The chocolate shortbread houses encircle a fluffy white velvet cake with vanilla buttercream. And the snowy buttercream trees and snow drifts bring the cake to life. Looking at this cake, I feel like I just stepped into the magical world of Harry Potter, strolling the streets of Hogsmeade in wintertime, on my way to enjoy a mug of butter beer at the pub.
Looking for more Christmas recipes? You might also love this cardamom almond star bread, gingerbread sheet cake with powdered sugar snowflakes, and a cute little snowman cake.
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Best Cookie Dough for Gingerbread Cookies
So, the obvious choice for a gingerbread village cake would be… gingerbread cookies. But, really, you just need a darker colored dough so that there’s a nice contrast between the color of the dough and icing, so that you can clearly see the details on the houses.
Gingerbread Cookie Dough.
Most gingerbread cookie recipes are heavily spiced, so they smell amazing. They tend to spread a little as they bake, and emerge from the oven still soft. So it’s important to trim the edges of your cookies with a sharp knife as soon as you take them out of the oven, and before the cookies cool and harden.
Chocolate Shortbread Cookie Dough.
I decided to go with chocolate shortbread for my houses. The color is beautiful, they taste deliciously chocolatey, and they stay soft for days. And, very importantly, mine is a no spread shortbread cookie recipe. Since the cookies don’t spread, they hold their shape perfectly, and the stamped design is beautifully preserved as they bake.
Decorating Gingerbread Cookies without Royal Icing
This gingerbread village cake actually began with my experimenting with ways to decorate Christmas cookies without royal icing. Royal icing isn’t one of my strongest skills, as I’m guessing is the case for many people. So I’ve been looking for ways to make beautiful Christmas cookies without trying to pipe all those tiny details in icing.
Stamped Shortbread Cookies
Using cookie stamps to press shortbread cookie dough, and then glaze with icing is one way to make beautiful cookies for the holidays. They’re easy to make and they look simply gorgeous. I made these stamped chocolate shortbread cookies using the Nordic Ware Starry Nights cookie stamps, and I just love them.
Continue reading below for step-by-step photos of how I made the cookie houses.
Embossed Shortbread Cookies
For my village house cookies, I chose to emboss my cookies. Quite simply, this involves rolling out the chocolate shortbread cookie dough, cutting it into shapes, then using various tools to emboss patterns and designs onto the dough before baking.
I used mini cookie cutters such as squares, rectangles and stars, as well as some fondant tools, to create the doors and windows. The end of a piping tip pressed along the roof line created a pretty scalloped effect. But if you don’t have these tools, you can be creative and use whatever you have. The tines of a fork, a piece of jewelry, the end of a chopstick, etc, can all be used to create unique and interesting patterns on the dough.
What really brings the details to life, though, is the icing. When you brush the icing onto the warm cookies, the thin glaze fills all the cracks and crevices, while remaining fairly translucent over the cookies. And as the glaze dries and turns whiter, all those embossed details really pop.
The Cake
The cake flavor doesn’t matter, of course. I baked my light and fluffy white velvet cake, and it was simply delicious with the iced chocolate shortbread cookies, like cookies and cream. A spice cake would be beautiful and festive, too, and especially good paired with gingerbread cookies.
Since I didn’t want my assembled cake to be too big, I baked my recipe for white velvet cake in six 6-inch cake pans, but only used three of the layers, freezing the other layers for another cake. The smaller size is perfect for this gingerbread village cake, and the houses arranged on top of the cake look like a second cake tier.
The Buttercream
You’ll need a fluffy white buttercream for this cake, one that holds its shape when piped, so that you can pipe the trees and swirly snow drifts. My Perfect American Buttercream recipe has everything you need to know about making the best buttercream you’ve ever tasted and decorated a cake with.
There are a few steps to making this cake, but you can make each element of the cake a day or two in advance, and then take your time with the decorating the next day. Your friends and family will be so impressed when you serve them this gorgeous Christmas cake!
Instructions and Assembly
Make the cookie dough.
- A day or two ahead of time, you should make the cookies so they’re done when you’re ready to decorate your cake. First, make my recipe for chocolate shortbread cookie dough.
- You can wrap the dough and refrigerate it for several days until needed. Let the dough warm up to room temperature until pliable enough to roll out without difficulty, but still cool.
Make the house template.
- Draw and cut a template on a piece of card stock. First, cut a rectangle measuring 2 1/4 inches x 4 1/2 inches. Then, cut off two corners at the top to make the roof line.
Roll and cut the house cookies.
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, to between 1/4-1/8 inch thick. Set your paper template onto the dough, and lightly score the outline of the houses. Keep the houses right next to each other, so you use your dough as efficiently as possible. Use a bench scraper and/or a sharp knife to cut the dough.
- Gather up the scraps, roll again, and cut as many houses as you can. You should be able to cut 11-12 houses.
- Place the houses 1 inch apart on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Emboss the cookies with the house details.
- It’s helpful if you have some small shapes cutters, or other tools to use to make impressions on the houses. For example, squares, rectangles, circles, stars, hearts, etc, all work well for impressing designs on the dough. For the roof line, you can use the end of a piping tip to impress a scalloped pattern. Be creative, look around your house for little things you can use to impress interesting patterns and designs. Everything you stamp onto your dough will be highlighted when you ice your cookies. Try to do a variety of designs on the cookies, to keep them different and interesting.
- When embossing your dough, press the cutters and tools (blunt side against the dough) deep enough to leave an impression, but not deep enough to cut through the dough.Once you’re satisfied with your designs, set the pan in the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour before baking. Chilling the dough ensures your pattern will be preserved, and the dough won’t spread while baking.
Bake the cookies and brush with icing.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Bake the chilled cookies for 11-12 minutes.
- Cool on the baking sheet for exactly 5 minutes, then gently transfer to a cooling rack. Immediately brush the warm cookies with the icing (icing recipe in this post).
- As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, you can quickly make the icing. In a bowl, whisk together all ingredients until smooth. The glaze should be thin, with a consistency like warm honey. Use a pastry brush to immediately and quickly brush the icing over the warm cookies, getting it into all the crevices, and letting it drip over the edges. Once you’ve finished a cookie, don’t brush over it again or touch it until the glaze sets completely. The glaze will crust over and set quickly, in about 30 minutes. Let cool and set completely for several hours. Then store in a single layer, or stacked with sheets of wax paper between each layer, in an airtight container, until ready to decorate your cake.
TIP: The cookies can be baked and iced 1 day in advance. The icing will start off looking clear and shiny, and will turn more milky looking as the cookies cure.
Bake and Frost the Cake
- I prefer a smaller 6-inch cake for this design, but an 8-inch cake would look beautiful, too. Bake and cool your cake, and if you’re not using the cake immediately, wrap each layer in plastic and freeze the cake layers until needed.
- Make a batch of vanilla buttercream, and be sure to make extra for all the decorative piping on the cake.
- Stack, fill and frost your cake, and get ready to decorate your Christmas cake! Smooth out the sides of the cake, but it doesn’t have to look perfect, since it will be covered up with cookies.
Decorating this pretty Christmas village cake is the most fun part! You’ll just love seeing how it all comes together into a gorgeous, edible work of art.
Decorate your gingerbread village cake.
- Houses. Start by arranging four of the chocolate shortbread houses on top of the cake, in a square. Press them gently into the buttercream, and use a little buttercream at the seams, to help them stay in place. Then arrange the remaining cookie houses around the side of the cake. This will make the cake look like it’s two tiers, even though it only has one tier of cake with cookies on top forming the 2nd “tier”. If you don’t have enough houses to go all the way around the cake, don’t worry. I just filled in the back of my cake with more buttercream trees.
- Trees. Now you can add all the lovely details that make this cake so beautiful. Fit a piping bag with a small star tip (such as #18 or #22) and fill with vanilla buttercream. Pipe snowy trees between each of the houses and around the back of the cake. Use both sizes of tips to make some trees bigger and some smaller.
- Snow Drifts. Switch to a round tip (#12), and pipe swirly snow drifts around the base of the houses and along the roof tops.
Serving the cake.
- To serve the cake, cut pieces by slicing between the houses. If those are too big, the cookies are soft enough that with a sharp knife, you can easily cut through them for smaller cake slices.
- While this cake looks beautiful, it tastes incredible, too. Because if you’re going to put forth this much effort to decorate a cake, it better taste damn good. The combination of the snowy white velvet cake with vanilla buttercream and soft, buttery chocolate shortbread cookies is just fantastic.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make the cake or cookies in advance?
You can pretty much do everything in advance, until you’re ready to assemble and decorate your gingerbread village cake.
- Cake. Bake and cool the cake, then wrap each layer in plastic wrap. Freeze until needed.
- Buttercream. Make the buttercream, cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week, or freeze until needed. Let warm up to room temperature and re-whip until fluffy.
- Cookies. Bake the cookies, and store at room temperature for up to 1 week, or freeze until needed. I don’t recommend freezing the iced cookies. Note that the longer the cookies are stored, the milkier the icing will look.
Do the cookies get soggy as they sit on the cake?
No, they stay soft, but not soggy, since they’re only touching the buttercream, and not the cake.
Other Resources
How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost a Layer Cake
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Gingerbread Village Cake with Chocolate Shortbread
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Ingredients
- 1 3-layer, 6-inch cake, frosted with vanilla buttercream
- 2 cups extra vanilla buttercream
- 1 batch chocolate shortbread cookie dough + icing
- 1 pastry bag + coupler
- piping tips, #12, #22, #18
- bench scraper
- ruler
- various mini shapes fondant/cookie cutters and tools, for impressing the design on the houses
Instructions
Chocolate Shortbread House Cookies
- DOUGH:You'll need 1 batch of Chocolate Shortbread Dough. Prepare the dough, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes before rolling and cutting your houses.
- HOUSE TEMPLATE:Draw and cut a template on a piece of card stock. First, cut a rectangle measuring 2 1/4 inches x 4 1/2 inches. Then, cut off two corners at the top to make the roof line.
- CUTTING THE HOUSES:Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, to between 1/4-1/8 inch thick. Set your paper template onto the dough, and lightly score the outline of the houses. Keep the houses right next to each other, so you use your dough as efficiently as possible.Use a bench scraper and/or a sharp knife to cut the dough. Gather up the scraps, roll again, and cut as many houses as you can. You should be able to cut 11-12 houses. Place the houses 1 inch apart on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- EMBOSSING THE HOUSE DETAILS:It's helpful if you have some small shapes cutters, or other tools to use to make impressions on the houses. For example, squares, rectangles, circles, stars, hearts, etc, all work well for impressing designs on the dough. For the roof line, you can use the end of a piping tip to impress a scalloped pattern. Be creative, look around your house for little things you can use to impress interesting patterns and designs. Everything you stamp onto your dough will be highlighted when you ice your cookies. Try to do a variety of designs on the cookies, to keep them different and interesting.When embossing your dough, press the cutters and tools (blunt side against the dough) deep enough to leave an impression, but not deep enough to cut through the dough.Once you're satisfied with your designs, set the pan in the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour before baking. Chilling the dough ensures your pattern will be preserved, and the dough won't spread while baking.
- BAKE THE COOKIE HOUSES:Preheat the oven to 350 F. Bake the chilled cookies for 11-12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for exactly 5 minutes, then gently transfer to a cooling rack. Immediately brush the warm cookies with the icing (recipe follows).
- ICE THE WARM COOKIE HOUSES:Icing Ingredients:1/2 cup powdered sugar1 tbsp melted butter1/4 tsp vanilla extract3 tbsp warm waterAs soon as the cookies come out of the oven, you can quickly make the icing. In a bowl, whisk together all ingredients until smooth. The glaze should be thin, with a consistency like warm honey. After cooling the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, gently transfer to a cooling rack. Use a pastry brush to immediately and quickly brush the icing over the warm cookies, getting it into all the crevices, and letting it drip over the edges.Once you've finished a cookie, don't brush over it again or touch it until the glaze sets completely. The glaze will crust over and set quickly, in about 30 minutes. Let cool and set completely for several hours. Then store in a single layer, or stacked with sheets of wax paper between each layer, in an airtight container, until ready to decorate your cake.The cookies can be baked and iced 1 day in advance.
Cake
- FLAVOR:You can bake any flavor cake you like, but I chose my White Velvet Cake with vanilla buttercream recipe. The white cake was simply delicious with the chocolate cookies.
- SIZE:I made a small 6-inch 3-layer cake, but you can certainly make yours an 8-inch 3-layer cake.
- GETTING READY:Bake, cool and frost your cake. Smooth out the sides of the cake, but it doesn't have to look perfect, since it will be covered up with cookies.
Decorating
- HOUSES:Arrange 4 of the houses on top of the cake, so that they form a square, pressing them gently into the frosting. Spread or pipe a little buttercream at the seams to help hold them in place. If needed, you can support them by inserting a popsicle stick into the cake behind each.Arrange the remaining houses around the side of the cake, pressing them gently against the buttercream. It's okay if there aren't enough houses to go all the way around the cake.
- TREES:Fit a piping bag with one of the star tips, and fill with buttercream. Pipe trees between each of the houses, and around the back of the cake. Use both sizes of tips to make some trees bigger and some smaller.
- SNOW DRIFTS:Switch to the round tip, and pipe swirls of buttercream at the base of each of the houses, and along the roof tops.
Beauty post top to bottom🥰
Hi
I have a question about the cookie glaze recipe.
I made it and followed recipe exactly but the glaze didn’t dry milky looking, just shiny.
Any suggestions? Add more icing sugar to glaze maybe?
The glaze will be shiny and clear at first, and then after a day or two as it fully cures, it turns whiter and milkier looking. You can also speed that up by putting the cookies in the freezer, which will turn the icing more white.