Gingerbread Project 2015

Another Gingerbread Project, another year I didn’t have time to make Who-ville. I also didn’t make the Millennium Falcon, or Death Star much to Tegan’s dismay.

With just days to Christmas, I consulted Canadian Living magazine and decided to make their Christmas tree truck from a few years ago.  I thought it would be quick and simple. I was wrong.

The first problem was transferring the pattern to graph paper. Instructions indicated one square = one inch. Who am I to question Canadian Living? I drew all the pieces as directed, cut them out and and finally got to bed just before midnight. I woke up at 5 a.m. thinking “Do I have a cookie sheet to bake a truck chassis that is 30 inches long?” Then I wondered “Can my oven even hold a 30 inch cookie?”

I got up and checked. Nope. So there I sat in the early morning darkness reworking all the pieces to half size.

With manageable proportions achieved, I cut and baked. A small moment of panic occurred during the baking of the trees and reindeer when Krista popped in and distracted me. I have never burnt cookies that badly before. Black. Black. Black. But it was just the trees and reindeer - there would just have to be fewer of them. 

When it was time to assemble the project, the truck chassis broke in half. It happens. But it’s just gingerbread, so I glued the pieces back together with icing and then waited for it to dry.

In the meantime I read the assembly instructions and saw that the chassis is meant to sit on toilet paper rolls to raise it up. Even with my truck at half the size the instructions called for, the cardboard rolls couldn’t take the weight and it started to sink dangerously and list to one side. I ended up using little dipping bowls under the back and front ends for support.

Forks. Bowls. Jar lids. Cookie cutters. Whatever it take to keep this propped up. The toilet paper rolls were useless.

Consulting the instructions again, I ended up being even more confused about how to proceed.  When Tegan agreed she didn't understand them either, we gave up on them and winged it.  She propped up a picture of the truck from the magazine and rolled up her sleeves to pitch in. It’s always handy to have a helper during assembly. (It also helped that every piece was labelled. Some of the pieces were so similar in size it would have been tough to tell them apart otherwise.)

Even though I know you should assemble gingerbread one day to let it harden and set, then decorate the next day, I was in a hurry and rushed the process. I ran into some slipping, sliding, smudging and attendant frustration as a result.

Finally, I went to finish the decorating with coloured icing and couldn’t find a drop of food colouring anywhere in my house. Not a drop. Obviously someone borrowed my supply and forgot to return it. Just another snag in a long 24 hours of snags.

Dang, no food colouring. I mixed three shades of green sprinkles and used that to colour the trees.

The overall result is not ornate. I’m too tired to go out and buy candy so - it is what it is. Done.

I forgot that Tegan bought me these cute little reindeer and tree cookie cutters from Ikea.

The shapes have slits in them so the pieces fit together and the figures stand up by themselves.

The trees were a bit tricky though and I had to use a rasp to enlarge the slits. It worked!