Pop Tart Gingerbread Houses

Pop Tart Gingerbread Houses are so easy! You can use Pop Tarts to create a cute and festive gingerbread house with your kids this holiday season! Gather your favorite candies, cereals, a little bit of icing, and you are all set!  

My mind was absolutely blown when I was scrolling through my Instagram, to see a friend had used Pop Tarts to create a gingerbread house with her family!  Decorating gingerbread houses is a long standing Christmas tradition in our family.  Every year, since the twins were little, I would buy a gingerbread house kit at the store, and we’d work together to build and decorate them.  As they phased out of that tradition, I continued it with our daughter.  Now, at 11, we no longer work on the house together….because I like to decorate them just as much as she does!

Using Pop Tarts to create a gingerbread house is going to be my new tradition from now on! I only wish I had considered it before! 

I am going to share some of my favorite tips and tricks for gingerbread house creations, including using Pop Tarts, with you today!

Tips for the Perfect pop TArt Gingerbread House

Hot glue your house together.  While icing is great, and really holds things well, hot glue is the best.  It dries quickly, and holds your house together much better, in my opinion.

Scan your pantry for any goodies before buying them.  Before buying extra candies to adorn your house, check what you have at home! The only thing I purchased for these houses was candy canes! We pulled out some leftover Halloween candy, I always have a slew of sprinkles in the baking cabinet, and we used some dry cereal as well! We were able to decorate our houses without a lot of investment. Seriously….just a box of Pop Tarts and some candy canes.  Those are the only “extra” things I purchased.

Using Pop Tarts for your Pop Tart Gingerbread house is economical.  You can purchase an off brand of toaster pastries at a relatively inexpensive price at the grocery store.  The upside to this is they are already frosted, and likely sprinkled! We chose Cherry flavor, to get the red sprinkle and pink frosting effect.  The already frosted tarts give you a nice background, and you don’t have to spend time frosting the sides and roof of your gingerbread pieces in your kit.

Using toaster pastries gives your house a sturdy base…and they are the perfect size!  After you trim your Pop Tarts just a little to create the front and back of your house, adding the roof and sides is so easy.  These are so sturdier, and don’t crack when trying to glue them together.

Using pre packaged frosting is ideal! You don’t have to mix it yourself, and it hardens really well. Or, whip up a quick Royal Icing recipe, with egg whites and some powdered sugar. Using pre packaged cookie decorating icing, and the canned frosting is great for sticking on the candies and other details.

Cover any exposed glue with frosting, and fill in the gaps with frosting as well!  When I assembled the sides, and added the rooftop, I had a few gaps between.  I just piped some frosting in there to fill it in. 

How to Make a Pop Tart Gingerbread House

First, you need six Pop Tarts.  Strawberry or cherry are ideal, since they already have a holiday look to them. Sometimes you can find special edition Pop Tarts around the holidays.  Those would be cute, too!

To get the house shape, you are going to cut 2 of your 6 Pop Tarts, so you can set four aside, keeping them whole. Using a serrated knife, you want to saw your Pop Tarts, not press down hard to cut them.  First, take one pop tart and lay it on its side.  Then set a second one next to it, vertically. Cut on a diagonal from the corner of the Pop Tart on its side to the center of the vertical pop tart.  Repeat on the other side.  Essentially, you should have trimmed the two corners off of one of the pop tarts.  

Lay your Pop Tarts so they are icing side down.  Assemble the sides of your house by gluing two whole pop tarts to the trimmed pieces. Then, stand it upright.  Add two more pop tarts to make the roof.

Then, allow your house to dry, while you get out all the supplies!  It won’t take long for the hot glue to dry.  

Start decorating your Pop Tart Gingerbread House with candies, cereals, etc!  The results will be adorable!

Carrie Hurst

Married to my high school sweetheart, we are raising two pirates and a princess. A lifelong Disney fan, lover of good food, and all things creative, I hope you will join me in sharing joy and making memories everyday.

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