A Gingerbread Challenge
Jenny Dowd
Sam and I accepted the challenge of making a gingerbread house for an exhibition and competition. The challenge includes 6 teams and the houses will be on display at the Old Wilson Schoolhouse during this Saturday’s Holiday Show and Sale from 10am - 3pm.
Sam immediately wanted a train station, and I just couldn’t visualize anything until we started. So, as usual, a week before the due date we started to plan. Sam had the idea to include some small businesses and that was where I got excited. And also made things more complicated.
First we drew out the plan. The rules stated that the house could not be any wider than 18” (good thing too - this could have taken over our house.) We made patterns for each building and started dreaming up what business our town should have next to the train station.
I have not worked with gingerbread in a long time, and when the recipe said “knead” I looked down and saw that I was actually wedging the dough. (That was the first and last time I compared this material to clay.) Before each tray went into the oven I photographed the shapes with their pattern so I could keep the buildings straight.
I tried to get fancy with melted candy in some windows. And found that some of the gingerbreads needed to be sanded to fit. At the point of sticking everything together with royal icing I was actually really glad not to be working with clay.
Sam made fondant animals for the small farm yard and our table filled up with sweets. I didn’t really think it was possible but I am so sick of the smell of sugar. When it came to really assembling the village things got too sticky to photograph. So here’s how it turned out:
Welcome to Flufftown (the locals pronounce it Fluf-ton)
Flufftown has a train that regularly delivers goods to the shops: The Pillows & Fluff Store is the proud founder of this town and does a brisk business alongside The Goldfish Monger, The Barber & Mustache Shop, and The 24-Hour Shoelace Store. If you head around to the back of the shops you can enjoy pizza or watermelon at the Slice Shops.
The train cars are full of fluff, pillows, shoelaces, and mustaches as these shops are stocking up for the holidays.
We planned to have a farmhouse and barn, but ran out of room. So if you need a barn we’ve got one.
In case you wondered, this is what happens when artists design a town. There were other things we ran out of room for - the Pillows & Fluff Store was supposed to have a conveyer belt taking fluff from the train to the stack on top. And a fence to keep the animals from getting too close to the train, but since they are all calmly laying down we figured they weren’t too daring.
We found a lot of fun candy at Mursell’s Sweet Shop, including cotton candy!
So if you are in the area, stop by the Old Wilson Schoolhouse on December 7th from 10am - 3pm to check these houses out in person!