If conventional gingerbread houses are a bit too twee for your tastes, consider making a gingerbread meth lab. Here is how I made the RV from Breaking Bad, complete with Heisenberg and Jesse gingerbread men.

First I found a cartoon of the RV which I used to trace around. (See attached PDFs) I printed it out on A4 paper, then cut around the main body and windows using a scalpel. I cut straight across the wheel arches in order to produce a simpler template. (The wheels are stuck onto the main body later, so wheel arches are not required.)

After I had cut out the side pieces, I measured along each straight edge of the print-out and cut out rectangles with the same length to make up the front and rear windscreens, and roof of the RV. I also cut out and baked a floor panel, but in the end I didn't use it for that purpose. Instead I cut two little right angled triangles off it to make little supports for my gingerbread men so that they could stand up on their own.

Step 1: Let's Cook.

Now make your gingerbread dough. I used this recipe.

You will need:

250g unsalted butter

200g dark muscovado sugar

100ml golden syrup

600g plain flour

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

4 tsp ground ginger

Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. In a large saucepan, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup. Mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger, then make a well in the centre and stir in the butter mixture to make a stiff dough. If the mixture is crumbly, add a little water.

Split the dough in half, then roll out one half straight onto greaseproof paper to around 5mm thick. Place your templates on top, then cut around them.

The butter in the mixture will make your paper templates go see-through, but in the words of Dr Nick Riviera: that's your window to weight gain!

When the pieces are fresh out the oven they are still soft, and can be compared to the templates and trimmed if necessary.

Before you begin construction, make sure you have the following pieces in front of you (see picture 5):

1x Front windscreen (including cut-out for candy glass)

1x Roof

1x Rear windscreen

2x Lower panels (for front & back of RV)

2x Side panels

1x Door

4x Wheels

2x Gingerbread men

2x AC top panels

4x AC side panels (short)

4x AC side panels (long)

Step 2: Making the Blue Stuff

You will need:

Blue boiled sweets

Clear boiled sweets

Blue food colouring

Ziplock bag(s)

Put the full bag of sweets in a ziplock bag and break the sweets up using a hammer. If your ziplocks are quite flimsy, double bag them to avoid making holes in the plastic.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the sweets and add a few drops of blue colouring at a time until the liquid is light blue.

Take the gingerbread panels which have window cut-outs in them, and place them on a sheet of greaseproof paper. Once the melted sweets have a thin, runny consistency, spoon them into the window holes. If you have any liquid left over, pour a little puddle of it on the greaseproof. Once solidified, this can be cracked using the same ziplock and hammer technique to create some candy meth.

Step 3: Assembly and Decoration

You will need:

1 Egg white

225g Icing sugar

1 Tsp lemon juice

Sweets for decoration. I used fizzy ribbons, chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.

White marzipan or fondant

Green and yellow food colouring

Piping bag

Whisk the egg white until it is stiff, then add the icing sugar while whisking, one tablespoon at a time. Lastly, add the lemon juice and whisk a little longer. Put the icing into a piping bag.

Lean your side panels against two supports, and attach to the lower panels with icing. Ice along the top and place the roof on, then leave for 3-4 hours until completely rigid. In the mean time, form your two little AC units and attach these to the roof. You can also use this time to make the outfits for your gingerbread men. Colour two walnut sized pieces of marzipan or fondant green and yellow. Dust a surface with icing sugar, then roll out the balls until they are baout as large as your gingerbread men. For Heisenberg, cut out two halves of a shirt from the green marzipan. Take a small amount of white marzipan to make his tighty whiteys, then wet one side and stick these to the gingerbread man. Make one shirt half flop over the outside of his underpants, then trim the other shirt half to look like it's tucked inside for that dishevelled, meth-lord chic.

Roll up some tiny buttons and stick these along the shirt seam, and prick buttonholes on the other half with a knife.

For Jesse, wet the underside of the yellow marzipan sheet and cover the entire gingerbread man, then cut around removing all the excess. Using a sharp knife, cut a hole for Jesse's face, then cut down the front of the suit to represent the zip.

Once the iced parts of your RV have become rigid, you can attach the windscreens, wheels, door and decorations.

And there you have it! Thanks so much for reading my Instructable, I hope you have fun appalling your elderly relatives with this crystal meth themed festive activity.