Gingerbread Ninja

Nightmare Before Christmas Gingerbread

Coming to us from the London area is this Tim Burton-inspired masterpiece. Figures are sugarpaste and marzipan. Photo via flickr, copyright 2008 by flickr member Yersinia. Photo licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Yeow, It's Back! The Mid-Century Modern Gingerbread House

I've been wondering all year whether Red Envelope will bring back their wildly popular MCM gingerbread house from last holiday season. And here it is! 

Wilton Cookie Decorating Contest Underway

Chances are, if you've got a thing for gingerbread, you've also got a thing for cookies. I'm right, yes? Wilton's 2008 Cookie Decorating Contest is underway now through December 13, with multiple winners each week. Here's last week's People's Choice Award, selected by popular vote. 

Gingerbread Neighborhood

This window display kind of reminds me of Clifton, near the Esquire Theater, in Cincinnati. From the photographer's profile, it sounds like it was taken somewhere around Vancouver, Canada. 

Photo via flickr, copyright 2006 by Nep Smith (flickr member nep). Photo licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Complete Directions: How to Build a Great Gingerbread House

OK, here it is. Pictures, directions, recipes, tips and tricks for creating awe-inspiring and award-winning gingerbread. Download How to Make a Great Gingerbread House

Columbus, Ohio: Still Time to Enter the Franklin Park Conservatory's Gingerbread House Competition

Attention people! You have until November 28 to get your gingerbread entry form filled out and turned in to the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio. The conservatory's judges will evaluate entries on overall appearance, originality/creativity, difficulty, precision, and consistency of theme.

Now, here's the cool thing. Categories include Youth/A house from your favorite book, movie or game; Family/Your family home; Adult/A garden structure; and Professional/Inspired by nature. 

Specially themed gingerbread structures are always attention-grabbers. Have you ever crafted a gingerbread house for which you made anything and everything you had ever seen and admired in the way of decorations? And then, in the end, all you had was a hodge-podge of color and candy, with no consistency, plan or focal point? 

Do what makes you happy, but if you want to impress the judges in a gingerbread house contest, pick a theme and stick with it all the way through. Your theme may be a simple color scheme, an artistic statement, a recreation of a well-known structure, or just about anything else you can conjure up. I'd love to see the "Inspired by nature" entries that make their way to the Franklin Park Conservatory, a botanical showplace, this holiday season. (Photo below courtesy Franklin Park Conservatory.)

 

 

Looking for Ideas? See Show-Stopping Photos of National Gingerbread House Competition Entrants

It doesn't get any better than this, folks. A company called Peak Definition Productions took up-close shots of every gingerbread entry in this year's National Gingerbread House Competition. Now you can see the detail, creativity and imagination that went into these glorious Grove Park Inn gingerbread masterpieces. If you couldn't make the trip to Asheville, NC, this year, no matter. Just sit down and enjoy these pics of some of the best gingerbread you'll ever see.

Brown Tinted Royal Icing: My Secret Weapon

Unless you're a steady-handed, experienced cake decorator, squirting royal icing between gingerbread pieces can be a messy task. I've discovered the perfect solution for the globby, sloppy icing situation that happens to me every year. Just tint the icing brown so that it blends into the overall gingerbread shape. All your imperfections will vanish, especially after you apply your decorative touches with white royal icing and various candy bits.

 

Above is my old, old Pampered Chef device that squirts icing from a variety of decorating tips. I used a special Wilton icing tint to get this shade of brown.

Look closely at this year's Gingerbread House of Cats and you'll see the brown icing bursting out of the seams of the building. But it doesn't show up much, does it? Instead of all my globby mistakes, your eyes are drawn to the white icicles and decorations.

Award-Winning Gingerbread House

Jessica's cozy pink cottage took first place in her age group at this weekend's gingerbread competition.

 

The windows are glowing, thanks to a tiny battery-operated light inside. They're made from a rock candy recipe, but beware! We discovered that the candy eventually becomes sticky and slowly melts, running down the interior walls of the house. The good news is that nobody can see it.

Dancing Cat Likes My Gingerbread House

Here's the top of this year's Gingerbread House of Cats. This feline is made of a couple styrofoam balls coated in royal icing and covered with brown fondant.