Heat oven to 350F/180C/gas 6.

Melt the margarine, sugar and syrup in a pan.

Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into a large bowl, then stir in the margarine mixture to make a dough.

Wrap in a cling film and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

Cut out the template.

Put a sheet of parchment paper on your work surface and roll about one quarter of the dough to a ¼" thickness.

Cut out one of the sections, then slide the gingerbread, still on its baking paper, onto a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, re-rolling the trimmings, until you have two side walls, a front and back wall, two roof panels and the chimney pieces.

Any leftover dough can be cut into Christmas trees.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

When the gingerbread parts are baked, take them out of the oven, place a template over them while still hot and trim the expanded pieces so they are exactly the original size with a sharp knife.

Cool on a wire rack until hard.

Pour sugar and juice of ½ lemon into a small saucepan and set over medium heat. Don't stir until you see sugar start bubbling around the edges, then stir until sugar is completely dissolved.

Continue cooking until caramel is amber colour.

Take off the heat.

Assemble the house by brushing the seams with hot caramel and holding the pieces together for 1 minutes or so until caramel cools and hardens.

Start with the walls, then move onto the roof and finish with the chimney.

When the house is finished set it on a cookie sheet covered with aluminium.

Next make the royal icing.

In a large bowl combine egg whites with cream of tartar, mix with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer until frothy.

With the motor of a stand mixer still running gradually start adding icing sugar ½ cup at a time. Continue whipping until all sugar is incorporated and the icing is very stiff.

Load up your pastry bag and cover the rest with a cling film directly on the icing to prevent drying out.

Keep the tip of pastry bag in a glass with a little bit of water to keep it from hardening.

Use your imagination to decorate your house in any way you fancy!

Sprinkle coconut all around the house. Use royal icing to set trees and any other object around the house to create a scene you like.