Gingerbread Brewery

Wednesday, 15 November 2017

This big pile of stationary is not normally how I'd start a baking project. I do occasionally make a sketch, or maybe even grab a reference photo from the internet, but creating reams of recyling isn't a normal thing - but this project has been a bit different. Let me explain..

While perusing the baked goods display at the 2015 Huon Show I thought to myself that it would be fun to enter the gingerbread house competition with a gingerbread house that looked like something in Hobart.   And having not entered anything at the show that year I promised myself that I'd create this house and enter it in the 2016 show.  Just a few weeks later I came up with the perfect idea - Hobart's Cascade Brewery:

So with the idea in place, and alnost a full year to execute it, I did absolutely nothing further.  I arrived at the 2016 Huon Show empty handed.  

This year I've had a lot of unexpected free-time, so it seemed like 2017 was a good time to revive my plan. Duly armed with some photos from the internet I started by trying to sketch the front of the brewery onto some graph paper so I would have the basis for the model.  This went terribly, and after a few attempts I was ready to shelve the plan for another year.  Luckily for me though, after I had abandoned my sketches on the kitchen bench and left the house to do something else, Zali came along and immediately saw the 'pattern' of the building's architecture - she said it was something about thirds. Anyway she drew up a perfectly scaled version for me.

With this hurdle overcome, and my enthusiasm rekindled, I took Zali's template and turned it into a cardboard proof-of-concept..

This helped me iron out some of the structural problems. The Cascade Brewery is really just a massive sandstone facade, with lots of tin-shed looking bits stuck onto the back and sides.  I had to simplify the details of the real building and make sure it would be strong enough to stand.

With the overall design sorted out, I decided to draw it up on Sketch-Up, so I could print out accurate guides for cutting the gingerbread.  This involved teaching myself how to use the 3d drawing tool - I'd tried it before but given up immediately, but once I got the hang of it it was quite fun..

By the end of that task I had a nice set of printed templates that I stuck onto cardboard and used to cut out the gingerbread. Along the way I also made a new metal cutter to do the windows, and I also like to think that I invented a new technique of doing windows - cutting them out and replacing them with thinner gingerbread - so they are inset.  I added on the thin strips of gingerbread to imitate some of the other features of the building. Here's the front of it before it went into the oven. Oh - I also invested in s $3 piece of plastic for pressing in the brickwork - which saved a lot of time and made it quite neat.

I did have a few attempts at cooking the parts as I experimented with other ways of doing things, but by the third time I was ready to commit to baking all the bits..and they turned out well.

The next step was assembling the building, using the time honoured method of tins to hold the sides up while they dried!  

I didn't end up using most of the roof bits, as the thickness of the gingerbread (as opposed to paper) made it look and fit a bit funny.  It turned out the liquorice straps made much better looking corrugated iron roof anyway. Zali came up with a method for making it look aged.

With the stucture built, it was time to do the funnest stuff - decorate with lollies.  It took me a while to settle on a method for doing the road out the front - in the end I sliced up liquorice bullets and laid it like cobblestone..

Then it was time for the finishing details - I came up with a good way to do trees if I do say so myself. Zali invented the mixed lolly hedges. The rest is pretty standard gingerbread house fodder with a few extra details:

like the drunk man out the back.. 

I hope my efforts are enjoyed by punters on Saturday when Zali and I enter it in the 2017 Huon Show. Regardless of the outcome, it's been a fun if rather frivolous project!