Cuckoo clock gingerbread house

This gingerbread house is one of my favorites. Actually, probably my very favorite. It was inspired by a trip my husband and I took to Europe. This was before we had kids and we were strolling down the beautiful cobblestone walkways and browsing through all of the shops. We were in Germany and came across a beautiful little clock shop where I saw a gorgeous cuckoo clock that resembled this one.

I have long been a fan of cuckoo clocks. With all of the intricate details, and the magical idea of a little bird peeping out of a clock, what’s not to love. Adding even more fun is the cheerful little cuckoo that you get to hear on repeat. Needless to say, I wanted a cuckoo clock of my own!

We were young and buying that cuckoo clock wasn’t in the budget. When we returned from our trip, I still dreamed of the cuckoo clock. That is when I decided that a gingerbread cuckoo clock was the next best thing! I got to work designing this house with all of the details and cuteness that the original had.

The house itself is made of sugar cookie dough. The trim pieces, window boxes, window grids, cuckoo perch and roof are made of gingerbread. You can see in some of the photos that the sugar cookie cracked. This is par for the course when building with edible materials. They absorb moisture and react to heat because they are porous and this leads to some unpredictability. You have to keep moving forward and the cracks just add character.

The shutters, doors, and cuckoo bird are made of gumpaste. The tiny mushrooms are made of royal icing.

You may notice that there are two different cuckoo birds in the pictures. This is because, at a Christmas party where the Cuckoo Clock Gingerbread House was on display, someone ate the first bird. People do have a hard time believing that it’s all edible!

The scalloped trim pieces are made of gingerbread and created using a scalloped cutter set that I have. I used a pastry tip to make the tiny circles in the center of each scallop.

On this house, I love how the snow (royal icing) hugs the candy rocks. The candy rocks lent themselves perfectly for this purpose, mimicking the rocks that many real cuckoo clocks have on their roofs.

This is the back of the house. The snow and icicles are all royal icing and the trees are confectionary coating (green chocolate melts).

Here is a little peek into the making of this gingerbread house. When starting my design, I make all of the templates out of cardstock or poster board.

Cuckoo Clock Gingerbread House – Gingerbread trim and details

Above shows the gingerbread trim details before baking. Sorry for the bad photo! Lighting is horrible at night, and that is generally when I’m working.