I was so excited when the SoCal Honda Dealers reached out to collaborate. First, I drive and love my Honda. Second, Jeff and I are obsessed with the Helpful Honda campaign. And third—best of all—I got to build a gingerbread car: a pink gingerbread car with presents on the roof. That’s a holiday win in my book.
Today I’m bringing two holiday treats. If you’re in Southern California, there’s a fun event the Helpful Honda team is organizing—details below. And for everyone, I’m sharing how to make a show-stopping gingerbread car. There’s even a printable template to make it easy.
And yes—we even made a gingerbread Helpful Honda man. I love him.
First, about the event: Jeff and I are big fans of the Random Acts of Helpfulness the Helpful Honda team carries out across Southern California. For the holidays they’re continuing that tradition—in early December they’ll be purchasing and distributing real Christmas trees for families across the LA and Orange County area on 12/3 and 12/4. They’ll hand out trees at multiple lots across SoCal and will announce the specific locations on their social channels.
Now, about the car itself…
DIY Pink Gingerbread Car
Ingredients
- Printable Templates (see template PDF)
- Gingerbread
- 1 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 cups molasses
- 1/3 cup water
- 9 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup corn starch
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- Royal Icing
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons meringue powder
- 6 tablespoons water
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
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Cream the vegetable shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add molasses and water and mix to combine. Whisk together the flour, corn starch and cinnamon. Gradually add the dry mix to the wet ingredients and beat on medium-high until the dough starts to come together; it will be fairly dry and crumbly.
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Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest at room temperature for at least one hour.
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Work in two or three batches. Roll the dough between two sheets of parchment to about 1/4 inch thick and place on baking sheets. Remove the top sheet of parchment. Using a long, sharp knife, place the printed templates on the dough about an inch apart and carefully cut out all pieces, removing excess dough.
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Bake smaller pieces for about an hour and the large car panels for up to two hours, checking every 30 minutes. The pieces should be fairly hard when they come out; they’ll firm up more as they cool.
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Use a black edible food marker to draw windows and doors as guidelines for piping.
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To flood the pieces, thin royal icing with a few drops of water at a time until it flows smoothly. Transfer the thinned icing to a squeeze bottle. Outline and fill areas: white for window details, black and gray for tires, and pink for the car body. Let the icing dry overnight to harden fully.
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For fondant presents: dust your surface with corn starch. Shape fondant into small square or rectangular presents. Use fondant smoothers to define edges. Roll thin strips of colored fondant for ribbons and attach with a little water. Make bows by forming small oval loops, pinching the center, and adding a thin band around the middle. Let dry overnight.
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To assemble the car: use a 5 inch by 6 1/4 inch foam or cardboard support. Spread a couple tablespoons of royal icing on the bottom of the support and set it on your display surface (cake board, platter, etc.).
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Spread a thick layer of royal icing on both sides of the support and press the main car panels against it. Hold or prop until secure. Repeat with the opposite main panel so the two sides are parallel and even.
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Spread a thin layer of royal icing along the top of the support and place the roof piece (Piece D) on top, pressing gently to secure. Fill any gaps with icing and let set for about 15 minutes.
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Using thick pink royal icing piped along the edges, attach the roof-side panels (C and E) first. Let them set, then attach the next pair (B and F), letting the icing firm for about 10 minutes between steps, and finally attach the last pair (A and G). Prop pieces for extra support as needed.
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Secure the fondant presents on top of the car with more royal icing.
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Shape mirrors, headlights, door handles and a license plate from fondant and attach them with royal icing.
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Note: you may need to make multiple batches of royal icing depending on how much decorating you do.
Photos by Jeff Mindell | Recipe by Theresa Rountree | Illustrations by Katy Jones
Christmas trees and gingerbread—everything’s here! We had so much fun designing and making this car. It’s now happily waiting in the studio for the holidays to arrive.
This post was created in partnership with the SoCal Honda Dealers. All content and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that help keep Studio DIY going.