By Annabel Carney, Mallory Pierce, Isabella Wheeler
Culinary Foundations conducted a rigorous competition on building and decorating the best gingerbread house. Sophomores Ava Ford, Hadley Gill, Maryn Guilfoyle, Kali Bogart, and Senior Nikkie Hollander took the win after creating a Cookie Cottage design. Their design was based on a Winter Wonderland theme. The team had two days to complete their winning house. They had one day for building and one day for decorating. Gill believed the two class periods were enough because “everything was manageable in the class time [given] if you knew how to do it”.
The Cookie Cottage was themed around red and white colors. “It gave a very pepperminty vibe,” said Hollander. Ford and Gill said that the key features that contributed to their win were the snow-powdered roof, and a heart and sled made out of candy canes. Ford took two candy canes to design the layout of the sled. She also took a flour sifter to create the soft effect of snow falling on the roof. To tie the house together, the team created a heart made out of candy canes that were used as the front door.
Each individual played an essential role in the making of the house. Guilfoyle and Bogart kicked off day one building and structuring the house. Guilfoyle explained she did most of the piping to hold the house together. On day two they started to decorate the house. “I did a lot of the small decorations and helped to hold the house together while it was drying,” Gill said. Ford had a similar role as Gill doing smaller decorations as well as creating the snow. Finally, Hollander’s role in the design was having a “big hand” in the decorations.
The group encountered setbacks as well as highlights during the building and decorating process. While the team was building they had had some difficulties keeping the roof and wall intact. “It was frustrating that we could only use graham crackers and it was hard because the roof was not secure,” said Bogart. However, Guilfoyle believes it was all worth it, in the end, to see it “not fall down.”
Work ethic was crucial to the team’s win, and Gill attributes their success to having been a group all year and the five of them being familiar with each other. The team won a certificate and a cup filled with candy canes to award them for their accomplishment.
