Graham cracker gingerbread house template
A graham cracker house takes 3 to 5 full sheets, depending on the layout. Recipes mostly say to cut the crackers to fit. This page gives the cuts for four layouts, worked out from the size of your sheet, plus the crackers, boxes and icing for a class or party. A classroom of 20 five-sheet houses is 100 sheets, or 120 with spares, which is 5 boxes of 27.
Your sheet and your group
The numbers below start from a sheet of about 5 × 2.5 in. Measure one of yours and change it if it differs. The tables and cut lists below recalculate.
| Layout | Footprint (in) | Peak | Roof | Sheets per house | Sheets to buy | Boxes | Icing to mix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A-frame | 2.50 × 5.00 | 2.17 | 60° | 3 | 44 | 2 | 6.00 cups |
| Square cottage | 2.50 × 2.50 | 2.50 | 39° | 3 | 44 | 2 | 6.00 cups |
| Long cottage | 2.50 × 5.00 | 2.50 | 39° | 5 | 72 | 3 | 9.00 cups |
| Wide cottage | 5.00 × 2.50 | 2.50 | 22° | 5 | 72 | 3 | 9.00 cups |
For 12 houses, with 20% spare sheets and 27 sheets per box. Footprint is the gable width × the depth. Icing is the "Mix" amount from the icing guide (seam length × bead size, doubled), added up over all houses.
The four layouts
A "sheet" here is the whole scored cracker as it comes out of the sleeve. A "half" is a sheet snapped or sawn across the middle. The wall height is 60% of the short side, so the gable keeps the other 40% for its rise. Pieces are cut with a serrated knife and glued with thick royal icing. I leave out the roof overhang, so the roof panels end flush with the walls.
A-frame: 3 sheets
2 sheets for the roof, 1 sheet cut into 2 halves, each trimmed to a triangle for the ends.
- Roof: two whole sheets, 5 × 2.5 in, standing against each other at 60°. No cutting.
- Ends: a triangle with all three sides 2.5 in and a height of 2.17 in. Mark the base along one edge of a half, then cut from each end of the base up to a peak above its middle.
- Footprint 2.50 × 5.00 in. This is the quickest house for small hands; it has no walls to decorate, only the roof.
Square cottage: 3 sheets
1 sheet as 2 halves for the gables, 1 as 2 halves for the side walls, 1 as 2 halves for the roof.
- Gables: two halves. Mark 1.50 in up each side edge and cut diagonally from the marks to the middle of the top edge, which becomes the 2.50 in peak.
- Side walls: two halves, each trimmed to 1.50 in tall.
- Roof panels: two halves, each trimmed to 1.60 in on the slope.
- Footprint 2.50 × 2.50 in, roof pitch 39°. Icing to mix for one house: 0.50 cups.
Print this layout at actual size. The generator draws the same three pieces. Cut the paper, lay it on the sheet and score around it.
Long cottage: 5 sheets
1 sheet as 2 halves for the gables, 2 sheets for the side walls, 2 sheets for the roof.
- Gables: two halves. Mark 1.50 in up each side edge and cut diagonally from the marks to the middle of the top edge, which becomes the 2.50 in peak.
- Side walls: two whole sheets, trimmed to 1.50 in tall.
- Roof panels: two whole sheets, trimmed to 1.60 in on the slope.
- Footprint 2.50 × 5.00 in, roof pitch 39°. Icing to mix for one house: 0.75 cups.
Print this layout at actual size. The generator draws the same three pieces. Cut the paper, lay it on the sheet and score around it.
Wide cottage: 5 sheets
2 sheets for the gables, 1 sheet as 2 halves for the side walls, 2 sheets for the roof.
- Gables: two whole sheets. Mark 1.50 in up each short edge and cut diagonally from the marks to the middle of the top edge, which becomes the 2.50 in peak.
- Side walls: two halves, trimmed to 1.50 in tall.
- Roof panels: two sheets, each trimmed to 2.69 in on the slope. The roof is shallow (22°), so it holds candy better than a steep one.
- Footprint 5.00 × 2.50 in, roof pitch 22°. Icing to mix for one house: 0.75 cups.
Print this layout at actual size. The generator draws the same three pieces. Cut the paper, lay it on the sheet and score around it.
Cutting graham crackers
Crackers snap along their score lines and splinter everywhere else. For anything off the grid, press a serrated knife on the line you drew and saw back and forth with almost no downward force, then let the cracker break along the scratch. Cut the diagonals before you trim the heights. Bowl Me Over cuts every piece first and lines them up before any icing goes on, which suits a group. Bowl Me Over also lets the crackers sit out for a couple of hours first, which softens them a little and makes cutting easier.
Break the cut-off scraps into a bowl. They make the snow, the path or the roof tiles.
The printed layout from the generator has the same piece sizes as the lists above. Lay the paper piece on the cracker and score around it with a toothpick or a sharp pencil before sawing.
How many boxes for a class or party
Boxes for the default 5-sheet long cottage and the other layouts, with 20% spare sheets for the ones that snap in the wrong place, no base, and 27 sheets per box. If your sheet or box differs, use the form above.
| Houses | A-frame (3) | Square cottage (3) | Long cottage (5) | Wide cottage (5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 sheets, 1 box | 4 sheets, 1 box | 6 sheets, 1 box | 6 sheets, 1 box |
| 6 | 22 sheets, 1 box | 22 sheets, 1 box | 36 sheets, 2 boxes | 36 sheets, 2 boxes |
| 12 | 44 sheets, 2 boxes | 44 sheets, 2 boxes | 72 sheets, 3 boxes | 72 sheets, 3 boxes |
| 20 | 72 sheets, 3 boxes | 72 sheets, 3 boxes | 120 sheets, 5 boxes | 120 sheets, 5 boxes |
| 30 | 108 sheets, 4 boxes | 108 sheets, 4 boxes | 180 sheets, 7 boxes | 180 sheets, 7 boxes |
For a class, count houses: two children per house halves the order, and each can decorate one side. A base of two sheets glued side by side adds 2 sheets per house. A cake board or a paper plate does the same job without using crackers.
Icing is the larger shopping item. Add the water a little at a time, because a spoonful too much makes the icing run. Make one batch for the group and pipe it into small bags, one per house. For 12 houses of the long cottage that is about 9.00 cups of finished icing, which is around 2.3 kg of powdered sugar.
How big is a graham cracker sheet
I could not find a manufacturer page that gives the dimensions. The best I found is an article that calls the most common retail cracker "around 2.5 inches x 5 inches" and 0.25 to 0.3 inches thick, 15 to 16 grams, and adds that sizes vary between brands. A library STEM worksheet for a graham cracker house says each sheet contains 4 crackers, meaning the 4 pieces it snaps into.
So 5 × 2.5 in is the working size on this page, and the box count of 27 sheets for a 14.4 oz box is my estimate: 408 g divided by about 15 g a sheet is 27, which would be three sleeves of 9. Neither number comes from a package. Measure a sheet and count one sleeve, then enter both above.
The thickness matters a little too. At 0.25 to 0.3 in, the corners add that much to the outside of the house compared with the footprint shown.
What other graham cracker house recipes use
The counts differ because the houses do. I Heart Naptime says "you need 5 graham crackers" per house and lists 32 for a group of four. Bowl Me Over uses four whole crackers for each little house. Restless Chipotle uses five full rectangles per house and tells you to slice "about an inch" off the roof pieces. None gives piece sizes, and the blogs count crackers, which may mean a full sheet or a quarter of one, so compare with that in mind. The table above counts full sheets: 3 for the square cottage and 5 for the long one.
Other house sizes
For a house of rolled gingerbread dough instead of crackers, the dimensions guide lists piece sizes for six house sizes, and the assembly guide works for crackers too. The icing for assembly is the same: see how much royal icing. The template generator draws any size you type.