2010 National Gingerbread Competition Winners In Each Category.

above: The Grand Prize winning entry in the National Gingerbread Competition featured Christmas-themed Russian Nesting Dolls by Heather Lewis.

Many gingerbread competitions feature some very amateur creations - unimpressive gumdrop laden homes with leaning chimneys, doghouses and lighthouses with lame landscaping and the like. But not the National Gingerbread Competition, which celebrated its 18th annual competition this year at the Grove Park Inn.


The impressive event garnered entries from 20 states and is not limited to "houses" but instead any gingerbread creation that falls within their guidelines. The competition is broken down into Adult, Teen, Youth and Child categories, all of which had several drool-worthy entries. These aren't for Gingerbread House kit-types, we're talking some serious gingerbread baking enthusiasts and fondant masters. Take a look at the winners in each category as well as the top ten adult entries.

ADULT CATEGORY

ADULT, Grand Prize Winner - Heather Lewis of Austell, Georgia (image at the beginning of the post)

ADULT, 1st Place Winner - Angel Adkins of Kodak, Tennessee:

ADULT, 2nd Place Winner -Barbara Evans of Edelstein, Illinois:

ADULT, 3rd Place Winner - Linda Carney of Asheville, North Carolina:

ADULT, TOP TEN - Ashley Howard of Winter Springs, Florida:

ADULT, TOP TEN - Tracy Navin of Franklin, Tennessee:

ADULT, TOP TEN - Suzanne Kanaly of Liberty Township, Ohio:

ADULT, TOP TEN - Ann Bailey of Cary, North Carolina:

ADULT, TOP TEN - Cathy Christiansen of Gainesville, Virginia:

ADULT, TOP TEN - Michael Billella of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma:


TEEN CATEGORY

TEEN, 1ST PLACE WINNER - Skyla Delerme of Asheville, North Carolina:

Teen 2nd Place - Carly Owens of Swannanoa, North Carolina:

Teen 3rd Place - Laura Malanowski of Newton, North Carolina:


YOUTH CATEGORY

YOUTH, 1ST PLACE WINNER - Lydia Gentry of Hendersonville, North Carolina:

Youth 2nd Place - Gabriella Arthur of Easley, South Carolina:

Youth 3rd Place - Emily Spafford of Maryville, Tennesee:


CHILD CATEGORY

CHILD, 1ST PLACE WINNER - Christian Ray of Charlotte, North Carolina

Child 2nd Place - Shan Patel of Asheville, North Carolina:

Child 3rd Place - Grace Lebo of Nashville, Tennessee:

above photos courtesy of Wright Creative

Each year there are several Gingerbread House competitions that take place in various countries and cities. One of the more popular, but not quite as professional, is the one sponsored by This Old House. 2010 was their third annual competition and you can view those 84 entries here

Nibble Nibble Little Mouse, Who Is Nibbling On My House? $15,000 Gingerbread House.

The Edible Gingerbread Playhouse by Dylan's Candy Bar is one of the more outrageous gifts in this year's Neiman Marcus Christmas Book. The full-sized playhouse stands 6.6 feet tall by 5.25 feet wide and 4.1 feet deep.

It's handcrafted with 381 pounds of gingerbread and 517 pounds of icing and includes giant cookies, lollipops, gummies, mints, gumdrops, and a candy-encrusted roof. There's even a lollipop tree inside.



CEO and self-proclaimed Candy Queen Dylan Lauren (daughter of fashion legend Ralph Lauren) was inspired as a child when she watched the classic movie Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. With Dylan's Candy Bar locations throughout the nation, she's made all our dreams come true.

Edible Gingerbread Playhouse by Dylan's Candy Bar
Price $15,000.00

For all the delectable details, call 1.877.9NM.GIFT.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water Reproduced In Gingerbread. Incredible Edible Architecture.

Fellow blogger Melodie blew me away with her version of Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Fallingwater home reproduced in gingerbread. Given that she graduated from BYU in Landscape Management a few years ago and more recently from MATC's Culinary School, it does give her the perfect credentials for such a feat.





Melodie began the blog Garden Melodies because she adores flowers and is hoping to expand into cake baking and catering. From the looks of this masterpiece - created with her friend Brenton for entry in the 2010 Gingerbread Festival in Orem, Utah - many people will be hoping she starts her cake business soon!






all images courtesy of Garden Melodies

Model Statistics:
• It took over 12 hours to design
• It took Brenton and Melodie around 40 hours to build and decorate
• There are around 164 different pieces of gingerbread
• It took roughly 12 square feet of gingerbread dough (that’s four large batches) to make all the walls, floors and roof
• Over 8 bags of powdered sugar were used to make all the frosting
• It took over 40 sleeves of large Smarties which are used to simulate dry stack stone on the building exterior
• The river and water fall are made up of three batches of hard candy

Best gingerbread house cookie recipe (according to Melodie):
2 Cups light corn syrup
1 1/2 Cups packed brown sugar
1 1/4 Cups margarine
1 teaspoon salt
9 Cups flour

Melt together the corn syrup, brown sugar, and margarine. Mix till smooth then add in flour and salt. Bake for 15 to 20 min at 350 degrees.


Unfortunately Melodie lost out to the entry Candyland (below) at this years' Gingerbread House Festival:

above image courtesy of the Grierson Family blog

Want some pretty flowers or a fabulous cake? Or simply to congratulate her on this masterpiece? Melodie can be reached at garden.melodies@gmail.com.

The Hippest Gingerbread Houses Ever! April Reed's Farnsworth House & More

This gingerbread version of Farnsworth House — Mies van der Rohe’s modern masterpiece in Plano, Ill. — is a (deep-pocketed) design lover’s dream. It took the elves at April Reed Cake Design several days of photo research and about 25 hours to construct the fondant-covered walls, poured-sugar ‘‘glass’’ windows and sugar-paste I-beams and staircases.