With no kids at home this year, it was hard to get motivated to create the annual Gingerbread Project. Every year I dream of creating a Who-ville village, and every year I realize how insanely complicated that would be, and come to my senses in time. Once again, this is not the Who-ville year.
Now, what did I think would be easy, you ask? A Viking ship. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The problem is that it’s not a very traditional Christmas theme, so there was no pattern readily available. I had to make the pattern from scratch.
Now, what did I think would be easy, you ask? A Viking ship. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The problem is that it’s not a very traditional Christmas theme, so there was no pattern readily available. I had to make the pattern from scratch.
I consulted the pictures David took at our visit to the Viking museum near Copenhagen a couple of years ago and thought it was do-able.
Here’s the thing, though. Ships hulls are curved. The engineer in the house had a suggestion. It involved Auntie Mary’s old cast iron casserole pan, burnt fingers and a number of choice expletives. (To be fair, his suggestion did not involve burnt fingers nor expletives.)
Once I finally got the ship assembled, I tripped and knocked it over. The front dragon piece smashed into pieces and the lovely curved hull was bisected. Decision time: Go on, or to call it a day? In true Viking spirit, I decided to soldier on.
Luckily I had made brown royal icing, as per Laura’s suggestion, so I glued that baby back together, then did something called “flooding”. This is where you thin the icing and then pour it on the cookie to make a thin but strong layer of sugar. It looked pathetic.
Undeterred, I decided to tackle problem #2 - getting the mast upright. The first very lovely mast and cross piece (I’m not a sailor, so I don’t know what it’s called) were way too heavy and as it heaved starboard, the whole ship started to tip over. I rescued my rather sorry looking ship in the nick of time and considered my options. Reinforcing with non-edible products feels a little like a cheat, but at this point, I just wanted to start gluing on (and eating) candy. Skewers were attached as reinforcement.
Then I realized if I had a mast, I needed a sail. What to use? Fruit leather? Parchment paper? Bake more gingerbread? I finally settled on fondant. After all I had a bucket full left over from Krista’s wedding. After much rolling, re-rolling, and a few more expletives, I figured out how to roll out the sail (the tricky bit was folding it) and attach it to the mast. Engineers among you will realize that proportions are way out of whack. But seriously, it wouldn’t sail anyways, because it’s made of gingerbread and candy.
The final touches were the fondant sea with candy fish and oars made out of licorice and sour keys. I think my favourite part are the little candy horns on my gingerbread Vikings.
Here’s the thing, though. Ships hulls are curved. The engineer in the house had a suggestion. It involved Auntie Mary’s old cast iron casserole pan, burnt fingers and a number of choice expletives. (To be fair, his suggestion did not involve burnt fingers nor expletives.)
Once I finally got the ship assembled, I tripped and knocked it over. The front dragon piece smashed into pieces and the lovely curved hull was bisected. Decision time: Go on, or to call it a day? In true Viking spirit, I decided to soldier on.
Luckily I had made brown royal icing, as per Laura’s suggestion, so I glued that baby back together, then did something called “flooding”. This is where you thin the icing and then pour it on the cookie to make a thin but strong layer of sugar. It looked pathetic.
Undeterred, I decided to tackle problem #2 - getting the mast upright. The first very lovely mast and cross piece (I’m not a sailor, so I don’t know what it’s called) were way too heavy and as it heaved starboard, the whole ship started to tip over. I rescued my rather sorry looking ship in the nick of time and considered my options. Reinforcing with non-edible products feels a little like a cheat, but at this point, I just wanted to start gluing on (and eating) candy. Skewers were attached as reinforcement.
Then I realized if I had a mast, I needed a sail. What to use? Fruit leather? Parchment paper? Bake more gingerbread? I finally settled on fondant. After all I had a bucket full left over from Krista’s wedding. After much rolling, re-rolling, and a few more expletives, I figured out how to roll out the sail (the tricky bit was folding it) and attach it to the mast. Engineers among you will realize that proportions are way out of whack. But seriously, it wouldn’t sail anyways, because it’s made of gingerbread and candy.
The final touches were the fondant sea with candy fish and oars made out of licorice and sour keys. I think my favourite part are the little candy horns on my gingerbread Vikings.
It's possible that gingerbread is better assembled in the evening with a glass of wine, rather than the morning with too much coffee. I will test this theory next year.
Although the ship was not nearly as easy as I had anticipated, it is now done, documented and ready to be “nephewed” after Christmas.
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