Make an EASY Pop-Tart Holiday House
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If you’re looking for a fun creative way to make a little magic with kids try a Pop-Tart House! No-Bake, No-Fuss, Just FUN. Anyone ever tried to make a gingerbread house from scratch? Let me tell you, it’s not easy!
Yes! Pre-made Pop-Tarts come together with a couple of other ingredients to make a somewhat Easy Gingerbread House. Make it with kids! Make it without kids! There’s no reason not to make a pop-tart house unless you’re a Gingerbread house purist. Which I get, believe me.
Easy Gingerbread House
If you’ve made an easy gingerbread house kit before and you’re looking for something new and different try this Pop-Tart House. The best part is ALL the components can be found in your local grocery store.
But it’s NOT a Gingerbread House
That’s true. It’s not. But what I’ve learned from 27 years of being a mom to active and engaged kids is this; THEY DON’T CARE. What they WANT is to spend time doing fun things with people who love them. People who aren’t stressed over making things perfect. Can I just go back and tell my younger self that?
What Do I Need To Make this House?
- Cake Board OR turn a baking sheet over and use the bottom
- Piping bags OR Heavy Duty Ziplocs
- Knife
- 6 (plus extra in case of breakage) of your favorite flavor of Pop-Tart
- Mini Pop-Tarts or Fig Newtons
- Royal Icing (recipe included!)
- Holiday M&Ms-OR pick your own faves!
- Mini M&Ms-OR pick your own faves!
- 1 Pack Dots candy-OR pick your own faves!
- Mini Candy Canes-OR pick your own faves!
- 1 Marshmallow-OR pick your own faves!
SEE?? Nothing hard to find!
And where I’ve put “OR pick your own faves!” it means look at the photos and decide what YOU want to put there.
Candy For Easy Gingerbread Houses
You can use ANY kind of candy when you make easy gingerbread houses. We always use NECCO wafers, cinnamon red hots, and candy canes. But there are so many more you can use:
- Starlight Mints
- Licorice Ropes, twists, or drops
- Andes Mints
- Empty Sugar Cones for Ice Cream make great Christmas Trees
- Necco Wafers
- Nerds
- Cookies of all shapes and sizes
- Junior Mints
- Sixlets
And the list goes on and on.
Love No-Bake Christmas Treats?
Try my EASY No-Bake Mini Yule Logs! They’re SO easy and so tasty you won’t miss all the work of making a real Buche de Noel.
Ok Let’s Build a No-Bake Gingerbread House
Pop-Tart Holiday House
Ingredients
- 6 Pop-Tarts
- Holiday M&Ms
- Mini M&Ms
- Dots
- Mini Candy Canes
- 1 Marshmallow
Royal Icing
- 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 TBSP water
Instructions
- Make the Royal Icing using the powdered sugar and water
- the Royal Icing should not be runny but more like glue If it's TOO thin add a little more sugar if it's too thick add a few drops of water–this will hold the house together so it's important to have it thick and not runny
- Line 2 Pop-Tarts into and L Shape, using the ling piece of the L as a guide cut the top of one pop-tart on the diagonal, repeat on the other side–this gives your the front peak of the house-repeat with one more pop-tart for the BACK wall of the house
- Using the cut pop-tart as a guide cut two of the remaining 4 pop-tarts to make walls
- The remaining 2 pop-tarts stay whole for the roof
- Your pop-tarts should look like this:
- Make a cut at the top of your piping bag if it's a disposable bag OR in the corner of your Ziploc bag-if you're using a real piping bag you can fit it with any fun icing nozzle you have because it's just going to be used for gluing
- Pipe a THICK line of icing down inside of the front walls of the house
- "glue" the side pieces of the house to these lines of icing
- repeat with the back wall
- Then for durability ice the outer wall joints as well
- Let this sit for 30 minutes to dry and set up
- Attach the roof with thick lines of icing
- Then ice on the top of the roof to hold it together
- use Royal Icing to stick the house to the cake board or an upsidedown baking sheet or pan
- Let this dry overnight for BEST results, it will hold together better this way
- Now it's time to decorate, please feel free to use any and all candy you have and like OR follow these directions
- Use the Royal icing to stick candies and goodies to the house
- Add M&Ms to the top roofline, decorate the rooftop edges with M&Ms or minis M&Ms
- Add the Mini-Pop-Tarts on the front as a door and windows or on the sides, either way works fine, or don't use them at all
- Dots can go around the outside as bushes or as Christmas lights
- Split the marshmallow in half, stick them down with a dab of icing and poke a candy cane in each one
- Consider sifting powdered sugar over the whole thing to give it a snowy effect
