Kurt's GingerPress

I’m a bit late but it’s been a busy few days. As with years past, the house has been semi-demolished so we can enjoy all the gingerbread and candy. And of course, there is plenty to go around for my local peeps. Unfortunately, Landon is away this week so there’s no amazing babyzilla shots this year. Instead, I’ll offer a few parting thoughts to fellow bakers and, more practically, to myself for next year.

First, baking at this scale with no interior support is a bit foolish. As my previous pictures can attest, gravity is not to be trifled with. I need to consider some basic structural design principles for the future…like using candy for interior support. I want to stick to the 100% edible mantra so I’m still not willing to compromise with anything artificial. However, I do think that some structural improvements could greatly expand the options of possible shapes and designs.

Second, cutting gingerbread AFTER it has baked is way easier than attempting to measure things to size in advance. For one, it is hard to guess exactly how much and which way pieces will expand during baking. As a result, cutting after baking means pieces can fit together in a way that actually makes things plumb and level. This also means bake time can be a little quicker since it is easy to roll out and bake a few large pieces of gingerbread.

Third, related to #2, convection ovens are awesome at delivering amazingly uniform gingerbread when cooked for the same duration as a traditional oven. However, a convection oven will not crisp the edges as much as one would otherwise expect. So, to get the same degree of rigidity for a piece of gingerbread, one must cook the pieces for 3-5 extra minutes in a convection oven.

Fourth, chocolate frosting is still a good idea.

Five, the whole process needs to start about a day earlier (say, 3-4 days before expected decoration of the completed product). For one, this will allow pieces to harden for an additional day if needed. More importantly, this allows for additional decorating time if certain elements (e.g. a roof) need to be attached after other structural pieces have hardened (e.g. walls). Additionally, this year I intended to add furniture and additional decor but by the time I finished decorating the exterior and walls it was basically Christmas day.

Six, there has got to be some more exciting candy in the world. Find it. Use it. On a related note, Twizzlers have trouble staying attached to gingerbread even with icing.

Finally, when Landon was helping me decorate it became obvious that he cherishes the entire process…as you would expect any kid who is ridiculously excited for Christmas. So, it’s important to build things that he will want to fill with Christmas spirit…and lots of icing.

Until next year, adieu!

I’ll post some reflections and thoughts tomorrow (the 26th). For now, some pics:

The brick dollhouse

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Entryway on Floor 1 (and Reese's Christmas Tree!)

Art that Landon made, Floor 1

The pattern room, Floor 2

Lacking a level wall, floor, or ceiling this room is pure whimsy

That’s right, it made it through the night. The floors is wicked saggy but I think we can start decorating.

After returning from a night on the town, I set about making some icing to attach the roof. Once that was ready, I tilted the house onto a baseboard that Mark had made for me (parchment paper neatly duct-taped to a piece of wood).

“Well look at that!” I exclaimed, admiring how the thing didn’t immediately collapse.

But as I looked closer the fear of every baker became a reality…cracks. Just a few at first…then a few more…and before I knew it, several floor pieces had peeled away from the wall. To make matters worse, the outer walls slowly started to buckle outwards…putting even more strain on the already weakened interior icing. As a I scrambled to install gingerbread support I noticed that ALL of the floor were slowly sagging.

In short, I now face two problems: (1) my design is poor and (2) the gingerbread is soft. Bad news bears. And all of this before I even attempted to install the roof pieces.

In the end, I spent almost 2 hours working to stabilize the building. Among other mistakes, it was clear that the roofing pieces were too small. I tried to compensate by using a ridiculous amount of icing to attach them which sort of worked. In addition, the height of the rooms in the house was just about seven inches…too tall for any piece of candy to add any support. A better design would feature rooms no taller than a candy cane to ensure that sturdy support could be added on the fly. I still have a day of decorating to do with the little dude but even if the house makes it through the night, I’m not sure how much candy weight I can add to the walls before structural failure.

Alas, I lay down with my fingers crossed.

Bad news bears

After a couple days of uber-messy baking, assembly day is finally here!

To start, I decided to cut the windows and doorways out of the front walls before attaching any other pieces. I then moved the pieces onto parchment paper that covers the kitchen tabled. The first piece (which had a door and window) went well but as I began to cut two windows into the other piece I noticed it was still soft—much softer than expected. Low and behold, when I began to move that piece a crack emerged from the top window to the edge. Not good. Structural failure in a main wall could collapse the entire rig.

I gently laid both pieces on the parchment paper and began to attach the two side walls. Water bottles provide excellent temporary support. Like last year I used chocolate icing for the structural “glue” so that it would be easier to hide my mistakes. I also attempted to spackle the crack on the right wall.

Hold fast

I still have plenty of interior pieces to attach today which I hope to do later this afternoon.

Gingerbread flooring

Tonight I will stand the house upright and attempt to attach the trusses and the roof. I am not entirely sure how I will prevent the roof from sliding off while it dries. More on that later.

In other news, Landon returned from a visit to the conservatory just in time to assemble some letters before his nap. He cranked out a solid L, O, and C.

Landon's Letters