DIY Graham Cracker Haunted Houses

Graham Cracker Houses are a fun and inexpensive way to build haunted houses or gingerbread style houses with your family. This craft allows for more creativity in structure and decoration than you find with the pre-built kits that you purchase from the stores.

Use this food craft as a fun event for a kids Halloween or Christmas party. Simply set out the supplies and let the kids build and decorate, they will enjoy the free form style and it provides a tasty treat for them to enjoy as well.

We include a recipe for a strong royal icing that will be durable and set fully in a short amount of time, and you can color the icing however you desire to fit the event or theme of the houses. Ideas for candy, cookies and all varieties of edible decorations are included to give you lot’s of ideas.

How do you make a Graham Cracker House?

Making gingerbread style houses using Graham Crackers, Mini Wheat cereals, and Chex Mix cereals is a fun and easy way to have fun with kids all throughout the year, and for any theme you desire. You can even get creative and build castles for a fantasy themed birthday party.

The Graham Crackers provide the perfect planks for walls, and the cereals can be used for rooftops, windows, fences and more. You will build your main structure using Graham Crackers and royal icing, then embellish using candies, marshmallows, cookie crumbles and any other edible goody you desire.

What icing do I use to decorate Graham Cracker houses?

There are two types of icing that you can use to assemble and decorate your Graham Cracker houses, the most popular and strongest would be a traditional royal icing. A strong royal icing will set very hard and may not be pleasant to eat. This icing is made by mixing powdered sugar, eggs whites and water together, it creates a very firm consistency once dry.

If you want to be able to eat your houses after they are built, you can use a different form of royal icing. It will still give you a good hold, but will result in a more delicate creation. To make an edible royal icing combine powdered sugar with water and meringue powder. Meringue powder is dried pasteurized egg whites making it safer to eat and a bit easier to work with.

Can I use store bought icing on my Graham Cracker house?

Using a store bought frosting or buttercream to decorate your gingerbread style houses is a personal choice. These frostings will be delicious to eat, but they are soft and won’t create the firm bond needed to keep your house standing.

If you want a house that will create a showpiece and allow for more elaborate decoration, royal icing is your best choice. If you simply want to provide a fun, tasty frosting that kids can play with and enjoy eating, you can absolutely opt for a store bought frosting or buttercream.

What is needed to create a Graham Cracker Gingerbread Style House?

To make your own Graham Cracker houses the supply list can be as elaborate or simplistic as you want, and fortunately, everything can be found at your grocery stores or whipped up quickly in your kitchen.

• Boxes of Graham Crackers, however many you need depending on your creation size.
• Mini Wheat cereals or Chex Mix cereals if desired for rooftops, fences etc…
• A strong royal icing, we recommend making your own.
• Icing bags or sandwich bags with a corner cut out. You will use these to apply the icing.
• Paper plates or a cardboard cutout to secure each house.
• Disposable table cloth to help contain the mess.
• Assorted candies depending on the theme of your houses. M&Ms, gummies, skittles, eyeballs, marshmallows, candy ropes, peppermints etc…
• Plastic utensils to help with decorating.
• Edible writing gel for embellishments.
• Edible glitter or luster dust if desired.

Fortunately, whenever you are building a Graham Cracker house to fit the theme of a Holiday you will find no shortage of fun, themed candies to use on your houses.

Can you hot glue Graham Cracker Houses?

You certainly can use hot glue to build and secure your Graham Cracker houses, but keep in mind they will not be edible at that point, so be mindful of the age group you are working with. If you are looking to provide a fun, creative activity for a large group of kids, you can preassemble the houses and simply let the kids decorate their houses.

We would not recommend the use of hot glue with a large group of kids who are building their own houses, or who would want to be able to eat their houses once they are built. So be sure there is always adult supervision present if you choose to use hot glue for the main structure.

Tips For DIY Graham Cracker Haunted Houses

The Base

Use a sturdy tray, strong paper plate, or cardboard cutout to build the houses on. This provides a mobile base that will secure the houses and allow them to be moved around if and when needed.

The Royal Icing

Load the royal icing into a decorators piping bag with a circle tip and use that for gluing the pieces together. You can also use a plastic Ziploc bag with a small corner cut out of it.

The icing might make thick seams depending on the size of the circle tip used or the cutout in the bag corner. If you need to wipe off excess icing, use a plastic utensil such as a knife or spoon.

Constructing the House

You’ll need about one sleeve of graham crackers per house for these little houses. More for larger constructions like the one we did in our video, use 2 to 3 sleeves.

Use a knife to cut the house gable ends to fit the Gable roof end angle. The thing is, different brands of grahams are shaped differently, we used Honey Maid brand crackers. Simply choose which brand and variety of Graham Cracker based on your creation plan.

Chocolate grahams are fun for a haunted house if you can find them, cinnamon Graham Crackers would add a delicious element alongside royal icing and you may even be able to find limited edition flavors around certain holidays.

The Haunted House Yard

• We made a pumpkin patch with candy on one side of the house, with a cemetery on the other.
• For the decorating glue we just used canned frosting and added color to it. You can use the royal icing for this but it will begin to harden after about 30 minutes, so you do need to work quickly.
• The house will need some set up time after construction. Allow for 10 to 20 minutes before decorating will ensure the house joints are strong enough to withstand decorating.

Suggested Haunted House candy decorations

• Candy corn
• Large Marshmallows with edible eyeballs for monsters
• Edible writing gel
• Pumpkins
• Twizzlers for accents and fencing
• Skittles
• M&M
• Mike N Ikes
• Scary eyeballs
• Monster candies
• Witches hats
• Reeses Ghosts
• Fall colored candy sprinkles
• Cookies to crumble for dirt if desired
• Small plastic decorations such as spiders if desired for aesthetics only

Look for what your local stores have. We have linked some items to Amazon is you need items and cannot find them locally.

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Frosting Recipe Source: geniuskitchen.com