Homemade Gingerbread Wreath….

Gingerbread just is Christmas to me. The smell of it baking takes me straight back to cosy December afternoons with the kids, decorating biscuits at the kitchen table and trying not to eat more icing than we used. There’s just something about gingerbread that feels like the official start of the festive season – warm, spicy, comforting and so ridiculously moreish. 😊

Last year, Master Frugal made the most amazing homemade gingerbread wreath at school and honestly, it stopped me in my tracks when he brought it home. It looked gorgeous. When I shared a photo of it on Instagram, my inbox flooded with people (I got at least three messages – that’s flooded, right?) asking for the recipe or instructions. I fully intended to write the post straight away… but I tend to shut the laptop over Christmas, so it never happened. Until now!

The version we make at home is slightly tweaked from the school recipe because we like our gingerbread properly gingery. We upped the ginger, added a cheeky bit of mixed spice and ended up with something that smells like Christmas itself when it comes out of the oven.

A homemade gingerbread wreath is such a lovely festive project to do with the kids. It looks impressive, tastes amazing and is far easier than making a full gingerbread house. Gingerbread houses look beautiful once they’re done, but you practically need to be an architect to get the walls to stand up straight. We’ve had some absolute disasters over the years… collapsing roofs, sliding walls, entire houses leaning like the Tower of Pisa. There have been some successes too, but the stress levels? Not worth it.

A wreath is different. No structural engineering required. Just roll, cut, bake and decorate. It’s surprisingly relaxing and a lot more forgiving. And because it’s so much less effort to make than a gingerbread house, you don’t feel quite as guilty breaking it apart and eating it afterwards.

The end result looks so festive hanging in the kitchen or sitting on the table surrounded by fairy lights. And once the inevitable happens and someone snaps off a piece for a taste, it becomes the loveliest edible centrepiece. It’s exactly the kind of simple Christmas tradition that becomes a favourite without you even trying.

Whether you make one for Christmas Eve, gift it to someone, or just enjoy it with a hot chocolate on a cold night, a gingerbread wreath is such a gorgeous way to bring a bit of homemade magic into December.

If you want to give it a try, the recipe card below has our exact ingredients and method – including the extra ginger, which is essential in this house. 😊

Homemade Gingerbread Wreath....

Yield: 1 wreath

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Additional Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

This amazing homemade gingerbread wreath was made by Master Frugal as part of his GCSE food technology class - hence the not so great photos - and tasted amazing as well as being the loveliest Christmas centrepiece!

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Ingredients

• 350g plain flour
• 175g brown sugar
• 100g butter
• 1 egg
• 5 tablespoons of golden syrup
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoons of ginger (Master Frugal used more because he loves the smell of the ginger so ours was very gingery)
• Icing Sugar
• Anything you need to decorate - Master Frugal used some cute little gingerbread men and some gold glitter on his

Instructions

1. The first thing you need to do is to add the flour, the butter and the bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl.
2. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like a bit like breadcrumbs.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and knead the mixture until it's all combined and you can make squidge it into a ball of dough. At this stage, when I make gingerbread I would chill it in the fridge for at least two hours, removing it about ten minutes before I want to roll it out.  This step was missing from Master Frugal's instructions - presumably because he only had a double lesson to make this in so he didn't have time for it but it turned out fab so you can do it my way or the quick way depending on how much time you have.
4. Whatever you decide, when you're ready to move to the next step roll your dough out on a floured surface until it's about the thickness of two £1 coins.
5. To make the Gingerbread wreath shape, Master Frugal tells me that he cut around a dinner plate for the outside of the wreath and a cup for the inside circle cut out.  When you've got your shape, transfer it using a fish slice to a baking tray lined with baking paper.  If you're going to want to hang your wreath somewhere then use a straw to make a hole in the top.  Pop it in the oven for about 10-15 minutes until it's golden brown.
6. While your gingerbread wreath is cooking, you need to make your shapes to go on top of the wreath.  This time you need to roll out your dough (again, on a floured surface) to about the thickness of one £1 coin and using whatever Christmassy themed cookie cutters you have, you need to cut out your shapes.
7. Transfer your shapes to a baking tray lined with baking paper and pop them in the oven until they're golden brown.  As the shapes are slightly thinner than the gingerbread wreath, they'll take a little bit less time to cook so I'd start checking after 8 minutes.
8. Once your gingerbread wreath and gingerbread shapes have cooled you can start putting everything together. Mix your icing sugar with some water to make quite a thick paste and then use some of that as 'glue' to stick your shapes on to the wreath.
9. And for the rest of the decorations - just go wild.

We’ll definitely be making another one of these this Christmas. 

If you think you’ve seen this post before, you absolutely might have. This week’s posts are a little bit special because my very lovely daughter, Miss Frugal, has stepped in to help while I’m feeling a bit under the weather. She’s chosen some of her favourite old posts to share with you again – the ones that bring back happy memories of things we’ve made, done or visited together, and I honestly can’t wait to see what she’s picked.
One of the conditions of her takeover was that she was allowed to do it all herself, so I’ve written this little intro for her to add to each post she chooses. I’ll be finding out what she’s re-sharing at the same time as you do. The control freak in me is very uncomfortable with this. 🫢

I’d love you follow me on Twitter and it would be amazing to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram. If you’re interested, you can find out more about me here and while I’ve got your attention, if you’re wondering why some of my posts lately are a little bit less frugal then have a read of this post. 😉

Do your future self a favour – Pin my homemade gingerbread wreath for later: