Yummy development
What do you get when you pair six area chefs with six local architects and add gallons of white frosting?
You get the second annual Gingerbread Build-Off.
On Sunday at the Davenport Hotel downtown, six teams will compete in a three-hour Iron Chef-style event.
The competition is free to watch and open to the public.
Working with gingerbread, frosting and lots of candy trimmings, the teams will build fabulous, fairy-tale creations. The teams aren’t limited to houses.
Last year, a barn and a train station won kudos.
The public is welcome to buy $1 raffle tickets for a chance to help choose the winning structure, and an opportunity to win one of seven prizes, including a night at the Davenport.
“It’s a wonderland for kids at heart,” said last year’s winning chef, Mark Van Hise, the Davenport’s pastry chef. He and his teammate, architect Chris Morlan, created a two-story home for the Ursine Bear family. The marzipan bears could be glimpsed through the windows.
Grandpa Bear snoozed in his chair while Mama Bear prepared the salmon for dinner. Upstairs, Bear siblings and cousins shot a game of pool and played air hockey.
The event is a benefit for Christ Kitchen, a job-training ministry for women living in poverty. Christ Kitchen hires homeless and very low-income women to make gourmet dried food mixes.
Soups, cornbreads, cookies and teas are available. Last year the Gingerbread Build-Off raised $20,000 for the ministry.
Jan Martinez, director of Christ Kitchen, is enthusiastic about the event.
“It’s so fun,” she says. “Everyone has such a good time.”
Hoping families will be inspired by the build-off, a gingerbread-house party for kids is planned for Dec. 10 at the Davenport. This also is a benefit for Christ Kitchen, which will put together the gingerbread house kits.
“We sold out last year,” Martinez said. “This year we’re making 1,000 kits.”
The gingerbread kits sell for $5.
Event organizer Patty Seebeck enjoys mingling with the crowd as the teams assemble their masterpieces and hearing folks reminisce about their own gingerbread memories.
“It’s a new holiday tradition for kids of all ages,” she said.