The Gingerbread Church

Have I said how much I love the holidays? I love the holidays! One of the things I look forward to the most is creating gingerbread structures. It has become my tradition since 2010. This year, I decided to replicate a historic 1900 Episcopal church as I love the architecture.

This is a week-long labor of love. I play holiday music while I work to get in the Christmas spirit. I spend days designing and constructing the church. In addition, I prepare a dessert buffet which I will present at the gingerbread church's unveiling. 

The walls and steeple are made out of gingerbread. Everything is in the details as some say, so I take my time carving the “bricks” and designs into the walls and steeple. Once I get started, I can’t stop. 

                                                     

Nearly every church has stained glass windows and this one is no exception. The windows of my church are made from poured sugar. Poured sugar consists of cooking water and sugar to a high temperature, adding glucose, and cooking it even more. Once it reaches the desired temperature the poured sugar can be colored and poured into molds. In this case, the molds are cut-outs in the gingerbread church walls. Once the sugar has set the stained glass windows are complete. To highlight the beauty of the stained glass, I install lighting inside the church. 

The church is not complete until the doors, the roof and the landscape are decorated with royal icing. I get lost while decorating. Although it is time consuming I enjoy every minute of it.

The church doors:

Close-up of the landscape:

While the gingerbread church was being created, this came together for the edible edifice's unveiling: 

The Menu for the December 2014 Gathering:  

* Passion fruit cheeseflan

* Mini lemon and blueberry jam trifles

* Milk chocolate mousse

* Stollen

* Almond cakelettes with an assortment of creams

* Pumpkin apple cake pudding 

* Egg nog

* Meringue cookies 'Brutti ma buoni'

* A village of cocoa-gingerbread houses petits fours

* Truffles

* Crystallized Almonds

* Linzer tart and Flamande tart

One week later, the gingerbread church and the dessert buffet are ready for their unveiling at the rectory of Father Ron Pollock in Somerville, NJ:

From my friends and family to yours, I wish you the happiest of holidays!