Gingerbread Train

By | Dec 17, 2006

Gingerbread TrainOur family embarked on a new challenge this Christmas season. We constructed our first gingerbread masterpiece. There are a ton of people doing gingerbread houses. Houses are great, but it is the trains that excite our boys. My wife found the detailed plans for this gingerbread train in Familyfun Magazine. <<< The link has been updated to the new Spoonful.com site that contains the recipe for the gingerbread and the icing. They also not include the train pattern template PDF.

UPDATE: We plan to do it again. We hope to build a bigger and better train this year. See our 2012 Gingerbread Train on DaddyLife.net.

Below are the results of our first attempt at following the FamilyFun plan for building a train. I will provide pictures that tells the story much better than my words. You can click on any of the images for a larger copy.

Gingerbread train ingredients
Get all the right stuff first!

Professional Rolling Pin Operator

Find a professional rolling pin operator.

Cutting out the dough.
Cut out the dough using the printable templates from FamilyFun.com. We used card stock for durability.
Gingerbread Dough Ready for the Oven

Gingerbread Dough after Baking
Gingerbread Dough after the Oven

Gingerbread Dough after Baking
Trim the gingerbread dough while it is warm.

Assemble the Gingerbread Train

Here Riley is using frosting to glue together graham crackers that were used for edible support.

Decorating the Gingerbread Train
Always use a professional decorating team.

Have some fun while Decorating the Gingerbread Train
Make sure the decorating team has some fun.

Apply the finishing touches to the Gingerbread Train
Applying the finishing touches to the Gingerbread Train.

The Completed Gingerbread Train
The finished product.

The Completed Gingerbread Train details
A close up of the train cars.

The Completed Gingerbread Train
A last look at our version of the Gingerbread Train.

We spent a total of three days building this train. That was two weekend afternoons of dough preparation and baking. We then spent about three hours on a Monday evening assembling and decorating the train.

Oh…We have been asked several times already about the snow. The snow is just a dusting of coconut shavings.

You can see another picture of this train on my main blog The Land of Ozz. If you would rather build a gingerbread house then you need to check out Simply Recipes: How to Make a Gingerbread House.

UPDATE: View gingerbread trains from other years.

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  • http://www.elise.com/recipes Elise

    What a lovely gingerbread train! I love the use of red licorice twists for the tracks. Coconut flakes as snow is a good idea too, better than the powdered sugar that I used. Does Riley get to eat it?

  • Lisa

    Hi, there.

    I found the family fun site and have all instructions for the train. The problem is that the pdf file with the templates does not come up for me. Do you happen to have the templates? If so, is there anyway you can send them as an attachment to me?? Thanks. Last year, my daughter and I made a house. But she loves trains, and this year, I’d really like to do the train.

  • http://www.hoei.com/blog Hank

    Elise, Yes! Riley did get to eat it. At least part of it. We gave two cars to some friends. Thanks for the link from your blog. I am honored.

    Lisa, I emailed you with a response. Thanks for checking out Grill’n Time.

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  • jamie

    hey im fourteen and i made this for my 3-year old cousin for his birthday (which is on christmas day) he loved it :) but couldnt find red licrorice so used block instead

  • Charlie Baldridge

    Wow how great. When I friend sent this to me I right away passed it on to a friend who has a train collection and display that takes from the day after Halloween until about two weeks before Christmas to put up. He is going to make the gingerbread train but the train cars will be about the size of an old animal cracker box, and will become part of his train museum in his layout. It takes up a part of the family room, part of the dining room and about 75% of the front room, the rest is his tree, and a walkway to see the whole thing. each room is a different part of the scene. Mountains with ski lodge with working lift and smoke coming from the lodge chimney(family room), the rural area complete with farms and river(dining), and the front room is the town. He even has a mortuary complete with herse parked outside. (where does one find a toy herse?), there is a drive in movie playing Marilyn Monroe films, a bar playing Elvis and other 60′s era music, over by one of his churches are carolers singing Christmas songs. He must think that this gingerbread one is really cool for him to make a place for it in his display. Thanks for sharing this with us, I just wanted you to know how far this has gone. I only wish my friend had a computer so he could take pictures or video to share the whole thing on line. We have been trying for a couple years to drag him into the 21st century I even offered to come do the work but so far a no go.

  • http://twofeettentoes.blogspot.com Astrid

    That train is so amazing! And your son is absolutely adorable. Thank you for sharing this. I really want to make a gingerbread…something this weekend. I found the link to this on simply recipes, and I am glad I checked it out!

  • Anna (Giuliani) Muscat

    What a lovely gingergread train you made with your son Riley. I loved it, and so much work went in to making it.
    All the preparation, the baking, cutting and putting together, and then decorating it. Was well worth it by the end of it.
    You did a job well done.
    Happy Holidays xx

  • Diane

    I just happened upon your post and am unable to find a template anywhere on line. Could you send me the PDF?

  • Sarah_kelly1982

    i can not find it. looked for ages.

  • Char99char

    I’m also on the lookout!

  • Julia

    Me too! It looks like Family Fun did a site redesign and the pattern is gone.

  • http://DaddyLife.net/ Hank Osborne

    I have an email in to Family Fun Magazine asking them to post the template PDF on their new spoonful.com site OR to give me permission to share the PDF. It is copyrighted. :(

  • Meghan

    I love your train! The pattern is there, I found it… http://spoonful.com/sites/default/files/0906_gingerbreadtrain.pdf


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