Technically speaking, you can eat a gingerbread house. Every ingredient is supposed to be edible (although for home use, many cheat using cardboard backing). They’re just not very appetizing because these structures are made from pastry that is deliberately baked to come out hard enough to build weight-bearing walls. The type of icing designed to cement their joints together dries to a tooth-threatening consistency. And they only get tougher, staler and dustier the longer they’re left out on display. Consequently, gingerbread houses made for competition entry generally aren’t intended to be culinary delights.
Still, it’s nice to be able to entertain visions of sugarplums melting in your mouth when you contemplate a work of top-shelf gingerbread artistry. It was therefore something of a disappointment that the last two plague years meant that the Hudson Valley Gingerbread Competition, hosted since 2016 by the Mohonk Mountain House, took place in the virtual realm exclusively. There were entries; there were winners. But one could only admire them via a videolink on the Mohonk website.
The Competition is back this December, in the real world. Entries were dropped off at the hotel last Sunday morning, with Mother Nature herself supplying an extra swirl of frosting as the season’s first substantial snowfall fluttered down. There weren’t nearly as many of them as in some past years (reportedly 73 in 2017); in fact, there were enough Honorable Mentions to go around that no effort was left unrewarded. But the level of artistry on view was every bit as exquisite as we’ve previously seen in this annual event.
Unlike the contest’s first four years, there was no big public viewing on the day the fanciful gingerbread constructions were unveiled and judged. But this year, all of the entries – not only the top prizewinners, as in the past – will be placed on display at various locations around the Mountain House corridors and in the grand stairwell, up until the first week in January. The best news is that a special $15 rate for weekday visitors will be available for the rest of this month, according to Elizabeth Benson, Mohonk’s director of revenue management and chair of the Gingerbread Committee. Proceeds from this promotion will be donated to the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley.
A limited number of Gingerbread Day Passes will be sold for each day, with sale opening 72 hours prior to your selected day. The special rate is only available for December 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21 and 22. The pass comes with several other perqs, including a $20 rate for a session of ice skating in the Pavilion, discounted from the usual $30 for day visitors. To learn more or purchase a Gingerbread Day Pass, visit www.mohonk.com/a-day-at-mohonk/gingerbread-day-pass.
And who were this year’s Gingerbread Competition winners? If you’ve followed past years’ events, you’ll note several familiar names amongst the entrants. A well-deserved First Place award in the Adult category went to Jessica and Keven Brunk, a/k/a Team Brunk Built, who have taken top honors before. Their Hansel and Gretel: The Joy of Cooking….Children displays their signature meticulous workmanship, clever visual jokes and exquisite detail. We were amazed by the delicate cutwork of the Wicked Witch’s shawl; the scattering of rats, black cats and spotted fly agaric mushrooms throughout the landscape; the cottage’s stunning roof tiles made of gingerbread men, pretzels and cookies that were painstakingly frosted or dotted with tiny chocolate chips.
In Second Place, another veteran crew, Elizabeth and Anna Black, a/k/a Team the Blacks, created Rudolph, which brings to life many of the characters from the beloved 1964 Claymation TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: Hermey the Elf, Sam the Snowman, Yukon Cornelius and the Abominable Snow Monster. Especially charming here are the “reindeer games” props found scattered about: a basketball hoop, a unicycle, a chessboard, a Twister floormat. Michelle Salva’s Fairy Christmas, inspired by “a history of making fairy houses for our garden and yard,” turns a hollow stump into a beautiful dollhouse.
The Junior category only had two entries this year, both ambitious and well-executed. First Place was awarded to a formidable fortress called Minecraft by Joshua Bunch, Gordon Vought and Abigail Fox, a/k/a Team the Jedi Council. Second Place went to Gingerbread at the Beach, a sparkling sandcastle bedecked with sea creatures by Maggie and Ruby Caputo, a/k/a Team Sisters Baking Gingerbread.
Honorable Mentions, all in the Adult category, were awarded to Mystical Magical Christmas by Marisol Diaz; Stitch’s Sweet Treat by Kaitlyn Kortright; Gnome for the Holidays by Lori Pizzoli; Pepperoni Pines by Jon, Emily and Lucy Caputo (Team Caputo Family Builders); Gingerbread Greenhouse by Marian Ruf and Rachael Alwardt (Team Green Thumbs); A Day in Dagobah by Petros, Aimee and Timothy Bunch I and II (Team Bunch of Bakers); Penguin Pins by Christine, Tom and Jessica Durso (Team Durso Family); Grandma’s House by Hillary Nichols; and Gingerbread Vacation by Lisa, Eric Stewart and Russell Stewart, Amelia and Alana Dugal and Joseph Ammons (Team Camp Stewart).
The judges for the Hudson Valley Gingerbread Competition 2022 were Audrey Billups, executive pastry chef at Mohonk Mountain House; Gina Vaccarino, owner of the Cake Artist Café and private chef; Chitra Agrawal, founder/CEO of Brooklyn Delhi; Amber Spiegel of SweetAmbs Cookies; and Rebecca Miller Ffrench of Upstate Table. Participants in the Gingerbread Day Pass program will be able to cast their votes for the People’s Choice Award, to be conferred early in the New Year.
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