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Edible art is all about making awesome creations with nothing but food.
This year I competed in the National Gingerbread House Competition for the second time. My piece was called “Viking Santa”. It was a Viking longship with Santa and his elves riding a wave.
I did not make it into the coveted top 10 this year, but I’m still very proud of my accomplishment. Especially the wave. It was created with mostly gingerbread and ginger clay. I had quite a few people ask me about it, so here I am to outline my method.
I started by making several batches of gingerbread using a Construction Grade Gingerbread Recipe.
Then I got out my silpat and dusted it with flour. If you don’t have a silpat, get one. They’re amazing. You can roll the gingerbread right out onto the silpat and bake it in the oven just like that. I also highly suggest a dusting pouch. You can fill it with flour and dust the silpat and the gingerbread to keep it from sticking to your rolling pin.
I rolled out my dough using my Wilton rolling pin and got it as flat and even as I could.
I cut it into big rectangles before baking it. I don’t have photos of that process, but I used a large sheet of paper to trace outlines onto the gingerbread so the pieces were all the same size. Then I used a fondant cutter to cut away the edges.
I baked a bunch of pieces, used my scroll saw to trim the edges, sanded them down with my sander, then stacked them together into a pile.
I used edible tylose glue to glue the pieces together. Then I started cutting other pieces to add to the back of the pile to create the shape of the wave.
I didn’t really have a set plan or measurements. I was baking some pieces and using scraps and leftovers for others. I baked and cut some larger pieces with rounded backs and stacked them on top. I hung them off the front edge to make the wave look like it was crashing.
Then, I used a bread knife to carve the gingerbread. It took some time and muscle, but I was able to get a shape I could work with. I took my sander to it after I cut it and smoothed all the edges.
I filled in some of the small remaining cracks with ginger clay and let it dry overnight.
Then I painstakingly rolled individual strands of ginger clay and placed them over the entire gingerbread base in layers.
The ginger clay recipe I use comes out brown. It took several layers of edible paint to cover it. If I could do it again, I’d paint the gingerbread base a lighter color before adding the ginger clay. Then I’d lighten the color of the ginger clay using white icing color or titanium dioxide while mixing the ingredients.
That said, I just kept layering the ginger clay until I had an awesome looking wave.
Now for the fun part… painting!
First, I mixed Wilton blue food coloring with vodka and painted the whole wave. Thankfully, I don’t have a picture of that step, because it was a disaster. The blue soaked into the brown of the ginger clay and ended up just looking like a blue/black mess. I thought maybe I ruined it and I was pretty upset.
Luckily, the second layer redeemed me a bit. I mixed the Wilton blue with vodka and added a bunch of white. Then I used a brush to paint the whole thing again.
At that point, I realized that painting it with a brush wasn’t the best method. The initial black/blue layer was showing through, it was streaky, and all sorts of gaps were showing.
After panicking for a hot sec, I went on Amazon and bought an airbrush. Best decision ever! I’d been wanting one anyway.
I gave the wave a layer of blue and a layer of shimmering pearl with the newly purchased airbrush. I was strapped for time and forgot to take photos.
Once it all had proper coverage, I busted out the metallics. I used two different blue metallic colors. I gave the entire wave a very light layer of metallic royal blue with a paint brush. Then I used a smaller paint brush to paint accents of pearlescent baby blue.
The result was kind of magical. Layers are key!
As for the “foam”, I settled on royal icing. I ran out of time and needed a quick fix, and royal icing was the easiest method I could think of.
I used 3 different Wilton tips and an icing decorator bag and piped dots. I started with the larger #8 tip, then used the #6 tip to fill in the bigger gaps, then I finished it all off with a #2 tip to get all the tiny holes.
If I could do it again, I’d make it look a little less uniform, but I think it looked pretty good for a last minute detail (I finished it in my hotel room 2 hours before registration).
I loved the way it looked with the ship on top of it. Almost looked like it was moving. Definitely a nice effect.
There were quite a few entries this year that had water involved, and the methods were all different and awesome! Maybe one day I’ll be able to produce something with poured sugar or isomalt that will be worth sharing. Until then, I will continue to make art with what I know… gingerbread!
Other Gingerbread and Edible Art Project Posts:
Construction Grade Gingerbread Recipe (for building, not eating)
Gingerbread Recipe (for eating and building)
Reindeer Playing Poker – National Gingerbread House Competition 3rd Place Winner
Santa’s Gingerbread Mountain Chalet
Cardinal Family Christmas – Gingerbread Birdhouse
Gingerbread House Construction Tips
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