Biscuit Week: The real-life gingerbread house we all need right now
Ready, Steady, Build: The Cost of a Real-life Gingerbread House is Revealed
Bake Off is back, bringing just the kind of sugary boost this country needs and it has the mortgage experts at Bankrate UK thinking, ‘what if we could build a gingerbread house in real-life?’
Using an adapted recipe from the baking Queen herself, Mary Berry, along with data on the cost of land in the UK’s major cities, Bankrate UK has uncovered how much it would cost to build your very own 3 bed, semi-detached gingerbread house. Think more biscuits, less bricks.
To build your new home you’ll need the following: 163,500g butter, 130,800g dark muscovado sugar, 65,400g golden syrup, 12,208g ground ginger, 872 packets of chocolate buttons and a little imagination.
When building a gingerbread house, it’s good to shop around to get the best bang for your biscuit. If you shop in Asda you’ll bag yourself this house for approximately £3,500. But if you’ve got some extra budget set aside and you’re looking to build something a little more up-market, Ocado will complete your build for £5,160.
The average cost to build a 3-bed semi-detached home in the UK is £213,000. This means it is approximately 98.3% cheaper to build a gingerbread house with Asda or 97.5% less with Ocado.
If gingerbread isn’t your first choice of building material, why not try Kate’s 3D cake house from the simpler times of series 5? We are talking moist pistachio cake walls, laced with blackcurrant ganache, a crisp white roof bejewelled with silver balls and blue fondant bedroom windows.
To replicate this house you will need 145,000g caster sugar, 36,250g pistachios, 174,000g white chocolate, 14,500g ground almonds and 290 packs of silver balls to start. A house like this could cost you almost double Mary Berry’s at £6,400 or £10,000 if you’re going for a luxurious finish. That is approximately 96.9% and 95.2% cheaper than the UK average 3-bed build.
There is no doubt about it, you’ll be Star Baker on any street.
But if that is not enough to satisfy your sweet tooth, why not show off your culinary skills in the garden too with some snowy trees? You will need some of the following: 50,000g plain flour, 200g ground cardamom, 17,500g dark brown sugar and 15,000g honey. Each tree will cost you an extra £420 or £600 for a top of the range spruce.
But where will you build your delicious new digs? As suspected, London is most expensive costing approximately £1,250,000 to buy the land and build. Birmingham on the other hand looks to be more attainable, costing approximately £165,000. Similarly, Cardiff comes in at around £195,000. Not too shabby for a house that doubles up as a snack.
MARY BERRY’S REAL-LIFE GINGERBREAD HOUSE
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INGREDIENTS 163,500g Butter 130,800g Dark Muscovado Sugar 65,400g Golden Syrup 392,400g Plain Flour 6,104g Bicarbonate Soda 12,208g Ground Ginger 1,308 Free-range Egg Whites 294,300g Icing Sugar 5,232g Lemon Juice 872 Packs of Milk Buttons 436 Packs of Sweets
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ASDA RECEIPT x654 x262 x144 x262 x31 x436 x109 x294 x21 x872 x436 |
Butter (250g) Dark Muscovado Sugar (500g) Golden Syrup (454g) Plain Flour (1500g) Bicarbonate Soda (200g) Ground Ginger (28g) Pack of 12 Free Range Eggs Icing Sugar (1000g) Lemon Juice (250g) Packs of Milk Buttons (119g) Packs of Sweets (150g) Total |
£974.46 £206.98 £165.60 £128.38 £21.39 £257.24 £184.21 £244.02 £17.43 £872 £436 £3,507.71 |
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OCADO RECEIPT x654 x262 x144 x262 x31 x436 x109 x294 x21 x872 x436 |
Butter (250g) Dark Muscovado Sugar (500g) Golden Syrup (454g) Plain Flour (1500g) Bicarbonate Soda (200g) Ground Ginger (28g) Pack of 12 Free Range Eggs Icing Sugar (1000g) Lemon Juice (250g) Packs of Milk Buttons (119g) Packs of Sweets (150g) Total |
KATE’S ULTRA 3D CAKE HOUSE
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INGREDIENTS 145,000g Butter 145,000g Caster Sugar 2,320 Free-range Eggs 94,250g Self-Raising Flour 580g Baking Power 14,500g Ground Almonds 36,250g Pistachios, Finely Ground 174,000g White Chocolate 87,000g Double Cream 105g Pinch of Salt 290 Egg Whites 65,250g Icing Sugar 1,160g Lemon Juice 435,000g Sugar Paste 290 Yellow Food Colouring Gels 290 Blue Food Colouring Gels 290 Silver Balls Packs |
ASDA RECEIPT x580 x290 x193 x63 x3 x73 x242 x870 x145 x1 x24 x65 x5 x958 x290 x290 x290 |
Butter (250g) Caster Sugar (500g) Pack of 12 Free-range Eggs Self-Raising Flour (1500g) Baking Power (200g) Ground Almonds (150g) Pistachios, Ground (150g) White Chocolate (200g) Double Cream (600g) Table Salt (200g) Pack of 12 Egg Whites Icing Sugar (1000g) Lemon Juice (250g) Sugar Paste (1000g) Yellow Food Colouring Gels (15g) Blue Food Colouring Gels (15g) Silver Balls (80g) Total |
£864.20 £461.10 £326.17 £30.87 £2.07 £116.07 £665.50 £870 £268.25 £1 £40.56 £53.95 £1.95 £1,714.82 £391.50 £391.50 £284.20 £6,483.71 |
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OCADO RECEIPT x580 x290 x193 x63 x3 x73 x242 x870 x145 x1 x24 x65 x5 x958 x290 x290 x290 |
Butter (250g) Caster Sugar (500g) Pack of 12 Free-range Eggs Self-Raising Flour (1500g) Baking Power (200g) Ground Almonds (150g) Pistachios, Ground (150g) White Chocolate (200g) Double Cream (600g) Table Salt (400g) Pack of 12 Egg Whites Icing Sugar (1000g) Lemon Juice (250g) Sugar Paste (1000g) Yellow Food Colouring Gels (15g) Blue Food Colouring Gels (15g) Silver Balls (80g) Total |
£928 £333.50 £675.50 £50.40 £4.20 £146 £798.60 £1740 £261 £0.25 £84 £110.5 £3 £3,832 £391.50 £391.50 £336.50 £10,086.45 |
GINGERBREAD TREES
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INGREDIENTS 400g Baking Powder 400g Bicarbonate of Soda 1200g Ground Ginger 200g Ground Cardamom 15,000g Unsalted Butter, Softened 17,500g Dark Brown Sugar 15,000g Honey 100 Eggs 100 Egg Whites 24,000g Icing Sugar, Sifted 100 Silver Balls Pack
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ASDA RECEIPT x34 x2 x2 x43 x8 x60 x35 x45 x9 x9 x24 x100 |
Plain Flour (1500g) Baking Powder (200g) Bicarbonate of Soda (200g) Ground Ginger (28g) Ground Cardamom (26g) Unsalted Butter (250g) Dark Brown Sugar (500g) Honey (340g) Pack of 12 Eggs Pack of 12 Egg Whites Icing Sugar (1000g) Silver Balls (80g) Total |
£16.66 £1.38 £1.38 £25.37 £13.20 £93 £27.65 £78.75 £15.21 £15.21 £40.80 £98 £426.61 |
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OCADO RECEIPT x34 x3 x2 x43 x8 x60 x35 x45 x9 x9 x24 x100 |
Plain Flour (1500g) Baking Powder (150g) Bicarbonate of Soda (200g) Ground Ginger (28g) Ground Cardamom (26g) Unsalted Butter (250g) Dark Brown Sugar (500g) Honey (340g) Pack of 12 Eggs Pack of 12 Egg Whites Icing Sugar (1000g) Silver Balls (80g) Total |
£61.20 £2.67 £2 £77.40 £10.40 £96 £48.65 £83.25 £31.50 £31.50 £40.80 £116 £601.37 |
APPROXIMATE COST TO BUILD IN THE UK’S MAJOR CITIES
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London |
£1,250,000 |
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Manchester |
£250,000 |
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Birmingham |
£165,000 |
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Cardiff |
£195,000 |
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Edinburgh |
£380,000 |
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Belfast |
£256,000 |
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Newcastle |
£280,000 |
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Brighton |
£875,000 |
DATA METHODOLOGY:
- Calculations were based on a UK average 3-bed semi-detached which is 96 square meters - https://www.dwh.co.uk/advice-and-inspiration/average-house-sizes-uk/#:~:text=Average%20UK%20house%20size%3A%20828,ft.
- The scale of the gingerbread house was originally 0.22 square meters before being scaled to 96 square meters - https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mary_berrys_gingerbread_91126#recipe-tips
- The average cost to build a 3-bed home in the UK is 213,000 based on findings in the following link - https://www.mybuilder.com/pricing-guides/architect-costs/new-build-house-costs#:~:text=The%20typical%20size%20of%20a,cost%20of%20around%20%C2%A3213%2C000.
- Scale of the cookie Christmas tree was 20 cm tall before being scaled to average 20 meter height of a real Christmas tree - https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=374
- Recipe and image for Mary Berry’s gingerbread house taken from here -https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mary_berrys_gingerbread_91126#recipe-tips
- Recipe and image for Kate’s 3D cake house found here - https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/recipes/all/kate-3d-cake-house/
- Recipe and image for the Christmas trees found here - https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/gingerbread-tree/1602b3ba-a8bc-4fd8-8f5d-abffff5970f0
- Average cost to build in the UK’s major cities was taken from current land for sale on Rightmove 15th September 2020
- Price of ingredients taken from Asda 16th September 2020
- Price of ingredients taken from Ocado 16th September 2020