For this year's project, I wanted something big and different, and the idea of a castle hit me in late November. The end result a couple weeks later was a surprisingly grand but far-from-flawless fairytale castle which we named "Gingerlot".
Several gingerbread houses I've designed and built in recent years, for and with the two grandchildren, were each different, fun and cute, but this time, without even trying, an actual story began to evolve around the structure which made it even more interesting and entertaining.
More challenging than a four-sided house, it required a few towers, some walls, a dungeon and a gatehouse with a drawbridge. Lots of ropey, red licorice candy served as "the moat".
And any castle worth its cookie-dough would need a dragon. Ours was "Gumdrög", breathing lots of orange-fruit-roll-up "fire".
My husband noted that if there's a dragon, the castle should be defended somehow, say with a catapult. So we made a cookie catapult complete with a nearby pile of perfect "projectiles"--just the right size of large, round, colorful candy balls--from a local sweet shop.
And wouldn't a small army of knights be needed to man the catapult? What about a unicorn?
Just about every fairy tale has a queen and a king ....
... and a princess...
One thing led to another, often quite unexpectedly. When one of the knights was accidentally overbaked, he became "The Dark Knight".
The main cookie characters in the Medieval and Royal-Icing-ed scenario were taken from the real-life household. Daughter-in-law was "Queen Kathleen". Son was "Sir Jed the Elder"---who incidentally would be assured that he was actually the "True King Jed" after climbing the dungeon tower and removing "Excookibur" from the "stone".
Grandson Cedric chose to be the hero "Ranger" lurking in a dark recess.
His sister was "Princess Leah", and the family's female Labrador Retriever became "Lady Nahla", the Princess' Lady-In-Waiting. Nahla's real-life male Yellow Lab consort, Flash, (who figured prominently in last year's gingerbread entry) was "Sir Flash The-Not-So-Brave".
As Sir Flash and various knights within the castle were poised to slay Gumdrög on the other side of the wall, a mysterious Knight in Shining Cookie Dough was approaching on horseback to lend a hand.
Creating Gingerlot was ambitious and plagued with many imperfections of design and sloppiness of construction, but---as are all my gingerbread creations---it was 100% edible and absolutely delicious.
And that one brief sugary moment that was known as Gingerlot was so much fun while it lasted.
Thank you for allowing me to share this project and to inspire others.
