We're calling it, gingerbread houses are officially out! And this chocolate brioche shaped house is the new dessert trend for 2026. If you thought the humble gingerbread house had reached its creative limits, think again, because we have never seen anything like this before.
One of London's most celebrated French pastry chefs, Nicolas Rouzaud, has given the Christmas classic a seriously luxurious makeover – and the result is almost too beautiful to eat.
New for Christmas 2026 is Rouzaud's Chocolate Brioche Gingerbread House (£45), which is part of the festive collection at Le Café by Nicolas Rouzaud in London's Burlington Arcade. Rather than being made from traditional gingerbread biscuits held together with icing, this one is made from chocolate and decorated to look like a brioche shaped house, with those signature gingerbread detailing.
But it's what you'll find inside that makes it particularly special. The house is actually a brioche-shaped chocolate mendiant – the French chocolate confection traditionally studded with fruit and nuts – and inside this house you'll find an abundance of candied orange peel, almonds, pistachios and sultanas. Think all those wonderfully festive flavours you'd expect to find scattered through a Christmas fruit cake or panettone, only hidden inside a very impressive chocolate centrepiece.
If you're not familiar with the work of Nicolas Rouzaud, he is one of Europe's most celebrated Master Pâtissiers, who spent seven years at Le Bristol Paris before opening Nicolas Rouzaud at The Connaught in 2020. His pastries are known for combining classic French techniques with a little nostalgia – which makes reinventing something as familiar as a gingerbread house feel very fitting.
Thankfully there's no assembly required, no icing acting as cement and, crucially, no risk of the roof sliding off before you've even got it to the table. Instead, you get something that doubles as a seriously fabulous Christmas decoration before everyone gets stuck in.
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Obviously it's going to be a little more on the expensive side, and is priced at £45. But, it is designed as a sharing centrepiece or gift rather than an individual treat. And I can see this being a particularly lovely treat to bring out with coffee after Christmas lunch – especially for a table of people who don't really want a traditional cake.
It's part of a much bigger French-inspired Christmas collection from Rouzaud this year, and will be available from November at Le Café by Nicolas Rouzaud, 66–67 Burlington Arcade, 51 Piccadilly, London W1J 0QJ.
Mel is the Senior Food & Drink Writer for Good Housekeeping UK, covering all the delicious new product launches that come her way, writing about food and drink topics, and curating gift guides for the best foodie products to buy. Alongside that, she can be found developing and creating cocktails for GH and holds her WSET Level 2 in Wine and Spirits. She was part of the Good Housekeeping Institute food testing team for over four years before moving over to the digital side, so knows a thing or two about great food products. You'll find her scouring the supermarket shelves in her spare time for new and exciting ingredients to experiment with in her kitchen.
