The Art of Advent: Day Nineteen
By Elizabeth Gillett
Gingerbread house building, a favourite holiday activity of my family’s, is a long-standing tradition dating back to seventeenth century Germany. First brought to England in the Middle Ages and later to America by early German settlers, gingerbread houses were popularised in the nineteenth century after the publication of the Grimm Brothers Hansel and Gretel, in which two siblings are lured into a witch's gingerbread house.
Lebkuchen Gingerbread House, courtesy of Ivynick.
Free of the frills of gummy candies, chocolates, and candy canes, this modern lebkuchen gingerbread, the traditional german gingerbread biscuit sweetened with honey, simply utilises lebkuchen and royal icing. Although modest in both material and structure, the house boasts a complex decoration with intricate royal icing patterns and gingerbread cookies.
Aphrodite Gingerbread, courtesy of Ocean House.
This untraditional gingerbread creation was designed and built by executive pastry chef Jessica Quiet and her team at Ocean House in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. The gingerbread masterpiece, currently on view at Ocean House, is a fanciful celebration of the 1937 motorised yacht, Aphrodite, which was recently restored by Ocean House. The complex creation employs the traditional gingerbread and royal icing as well as valrhona chocolate, peppermints, gumdrops, and airbrushed cocoa butter to add detail.
World’s Largest Gingerbread House, courtesy of Today.
Finally, this giant gingerbread house built in 2013 by the Texas A&M University Traditions Club has earned the Guinness World Record title of the world's largest gingerbread house. The house, measuring at 18.2 x 12.8 x 3.07 metres, required 1,800 pounds of butter, 7,200 eggs, 7,200 pounds of flour, nearly 3,000 pounds of brown sugar, and over 22,000 sweets for decoration. The exterior is made entirely of gingerbread and royal icing, but the interior, which features working electricity, is built from lumber. Whether intricate and substantial or slight and pared down, gingerbread houses have recalled cozy Christmas memories for over 400 years and will continue to do so in years to come.
Bibliography
Stump, Scott. “Sweet! World’s Largest Gingerbread House Raises Money for Hospital”, 4 December, 2013. Accessed 18 December 2023. https://www.today.com/news/sweet-worlds-largest-gingerbread-house-raises-money-hospital-2d11690926
Wilson, Antonia. “A Brief History of the Gingerbread House”, 22 December 2018. Accessed 18 December 2023. https://amp.theguardian.com/travel/2018/dec/22/a-brief-history-of-the-gingerbread-house