Do you think your attempt to create a Christmas gingerbread house turned out in vain? Did it end up looking like a pile of soggy icing and crumbs? You might be tempted to stop looking now. They are simply amazing and will make Bake Off stars blush.
From the Palace of Versailles to Castle Howard, there’s no building that Britain’s first ‘gingerbread architect’ can’t recreate.
Every year, Emily Garland creates exquisitely scaled-down models of some of the world’s most beautiful buildings, complete with doric columns, domed roofs and window after window painstakingly piped with royal icing.
And while they’d certainly make a glorious centrepiece for your Christmas table, you’d struggle to fit some of the largest through the door. Six feet high was her largest creation, after ten years of perfecting her building and cooking techniques.
Though you’d expect her to have learnt in a top patisserie, the 38-year-old — known as ‘the Maid of Gingerbread’ — is self-taught. ‘My mother told me that cooking is a game you can eat,’ says Emily.
Townhouse: Emily built this 6ft tall townhouse for the Ideal Home Exhibition using approximately 22 lb flour. From the Palace of Versailles to Castle Howard, there’s no building that Britain’s first ‘gingerbread architect’ can’t recreate
‘I have only ever learnt on the job. I consider myself an engineer, but that is not the only way I view myself. My materials just happen to be edible.’
It’s easy to sniff out Emily’s studio in a mews in Hackney, East London, thanks to the delicious aromas emanating from it.
Today she’s finishing up a 2-foot replica of a Georgian Townhouse in Central London.
This is the centerpiece of an elegant Christmas party, with its edible black brickwork and ornate cornicing. But how did she achieve this?
‘For bigger builds, my first step is to use Google Earth to capture aerial shots,’ she says. ‘Then I make cardboard models. Once I am happy with it, I dismantle it and use the templates to cut the gingerbread pieces to the right sizes.’
The gingerbread dough is cooked at exactly the right temperature for each piece’s size for maximum strength. Finally, each section is perfectly shaped by a cheesegrater.
Waldorf Hotel: Emily spent a week making this 3ft x 2ft model for a Christmas display in the hotel’s foyer
Final step: glue the two together using royal icing, which is whipped until it resembles toothpaste. To create seamless effects, she often uses the same color as gingerbread.
The most difficult part of transporting Emily’s amazing creations is, I think, nerve-racking. Emily says that larger buildings can be moved in pieces and then assembled at the destination.
In any case, Emily’s work is designed to be robust. ‘They always arrive in one piece. I haven’t had an accident yet.’
She discovered her love for gingerbread when she was a youngster in Colchester, Essex’s family of passionate home bakers.
She was four years old when the smell and sight of gingerbread attracted her to it.
Even so, baking didn’t seem like a career option and she initially trained as a musician. But 11 years ago she was invited to a friend’s circus-themed birthday party and decided to make a gingerbread big top, complete with animals jumping through Party Ring biscuits.
‘Everyone’s reaction was so overwhelming I started to wonder if I could turn it into a business.’
After leaving her university job, Emily began selling cookies, and then she moved into gingerbread homes. Her constructions got more ambitious over time.
‘I would make something and then someone would see it and want something bigger.’
108 MARYLEBONE LANE: Emily’s gingerbread version of the chic London brasserie is 2ft across and took her three days to complete
THE PALACE of VERSAILLES: Emily uses a 6ft x4ft replica, commissioned by The British Museum. This is large enough to feed at least 750 people
The gingerbread dough is cooked at exactly the right temperature for each piece’s size for maximum strength. Finally, each section is cut with a cheese knife.
Castle Howard: Emily took three months over this awesome creation, which includes seven separate buildings and a train
Her favourite part is seeing her clients’ faces when they set eyes on her gingerbread replicas. ‘It doesn’t matter who they are, or how grand the house, when a customer sees their property made out of gingerbread, you can see child-like excitement in their eyes’
Her breakthrough came in 2016 when she got her first large-scale commission to recreate Castle Howard, the Yorkshire stately home famous as the house in TV’s Brideshead Revisited. This model, measuring 4 m by 3 m, included seven buildings as well as a train. It took three months from commissioning to complete the project.
Emily made numerous copies of famous buildings such as Somerset House, The Waldorf Hotel, and Lancaster House.
Her creations are priced at two-figures, but the more ambitious pieces can cost up to four figures. ‘Each piece is bespoke. Much of it depends on how complicated the building is,’ says Emily.
‘For example, domes aren’t impossible to make, but they do take longer.’
Emily is also sharing her tips in her online kits, which include templates to a variety of projects. The secret to her success is what most bakers are clamouring for. Emily says the secret is smooth, even-cooked biscuits.
‘The best gingerbread recipe is one that doesn’t have any bicarbonate of soda or egg in it, so you get nice flat shapes,’ she says.
‘To get sharp edges, pop the gingerbread shapes in the freezer before they go in the oven.’ While her creations may look too good to eat, she encourages her work to be broken into bits, often throwing in a free mallet. ‘Gingerbread is more fun and has so much more drama than cake.
‘Smashing something to bits is so much more satisfying than slicing into a sponge.’
Her favourite part is seeing her clients’ faces when they set eyes on her gingerbread replicas. ‘It doesn’t matter who they are, or how grand the house, when a customer sees their property made out of gingerbread, you can see child-like excitement in their eyes.
‘Plus, the aroma of gingerbread is always amazing. After all these years, I still love it.’
To download Emily’s gingerbread-making kit for £5, go to maidofgingerbread.com