Cream the softened butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the molasses and egg and continue creaming, scraping down the sides of the bowl so that everything is well incorporated.

Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, gingerbread spice).

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until evenly combined. The dough can be used right away. However, refrigerating it for at least 30 minutes may make it easier to handle.

To make the bricks, lightly flour the dough on a silicon baking mat or piece of parchment paper. Pat the dough into a square or rectangle. Roll out into a slab 1 cm thick rectangle (lightly flouring as needed).

Using a ruler and a dough scraper, mark out where you will be dividing the dough. Cut the dough into 1x2 cm rectangles (see note 2). The easiest way to do this is to cut the dough into 1 cm wide strips, then divide the strips at 2 cm intervals.

Gently transfer each brick to a baking tray line with parchment or a baking mat, taking care not to distort the bricks when handling. The bricks must not touch each other. There should be at least 1 cm clearance between each brick as they will expand in the oven.

Depending on your gingerbread brick house design, you may also wish to make some 1x1x1 cm square bricks or some triangular or angled bricks for the roof. The excess dough can be gathered, kneaded, and formed into “rafters” (long strips) and “decking” (thin rectangular slabs) for the roof. Alternatively, you can keep it simple and make slabs for the roof.

Bake the bricks in a preheated oven at 360 F for 10-15 minutes. The bricks should have expanded slightly, and the bottom side of the bricks should take on some color. The bricks will be soft coming out of the oven but will harden as they cool.

Let cool to room temperature. The gingerbread bricks are now ready to be used along with your favorite royal icing to build a gingerbread brick house. If you will not be building immediately, transfer the bricks to an airtight container until ready to use.