Gingerbread Creations | Transcend Design

Gingerbread 2024: The Prince George Hotel

January 28, 2025January 28, 2025
by brucen

In 2009, I received The Gingerbread Architect as a gift. It’s a great book, and it comes with recipes and ingredients for 12 different gingerbread masterpieces. Since then I’ve made a number of gingerbread houses, including Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in 2012, Waterfront Station in 2020, Irving House in 2021, and The Hermitage Winter Palace in 2022.

This is my take on the Prince George Hotel, which is located in Kingston, Ontario. I was inspired by the documentary “The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal” which told the story of the Hip’s arc from local band to national treasure. RIP Gord Downie, one of the best.

The building was built in 1820. It features slightly elevated ground floor, veranda, and a symmetrical front facade. The tallest part is the mansard tower, which features a few curved pieces of gingerbread – always a challenge to bake, and circular bullseye dormers.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2023: Fort Langley Community Hall

January 28, 2025January 28, 2025
by brucen

My inspiration this year is the Fort Langley Community Hall. The town hall is an historic heritage building in the picturesque and romantic downtown of Fort Langley. Construction on this building finished in 1931. If the building looks familiar, it has appeared in a number of movies and TV shows, including a half dozen Hallmark movies. A city girl returns to her small town roots, and the local carpenter .. oh you haven’t seen that one?

The design fairly closely replicates the original building, just squished for scale. The decorations included fondant for the siding, and sour strips for the gabled front of the building, and roof shingles. The same sour strips provided the red brick work on the chimney stacks.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2022: Hermitage Museum – The Winter Palace

February 20, 2023January 11, 2024
by brucen

My inspiration this year is The Winter Palace of The State Hermitage Museum. The palace is an historic art gallery and museum located in St. Petersburg, Russia. Designed by architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli in Baroque style, the palace has a green and white facade, and a tree-lined courtyard in the middle.

This is the largest gingerbread structure I’ve completed to date. This was a massively scaled-down design so that I could fit it onto the board. Challenging, but a fun project to complete!

The design included interior courtyard walls, as well as exterior walls. The decorations included innumerable isomalt windows decorated with mini M&Ms, and royal icing. The courtyard trees were made from Rice Krispie treats, on shredded coconut grass.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2021: Irving House

February 20, 2022January 11, 2024
by brucen

In 2009, I received The Gingerbread Architect as a gift. It’s a great book, and it comes with recipes and ingredients for 12 different gingerbread masterpieces. Since then I’ve made a number of gingerbread houses, including Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in 2012, the Stewart Farmhouse in 2016, the Hotel Europe in 2017, the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2018, the Woodward’s Building in 2019, and Waterfront Station in 2020.

My inspiration this year is Irving House, a heritage site in New Westminster. It is a one and a half storey tall building, and is known to be the oldest house in the Lower Mainland still completely intact! It still stands today in the original location on Royal Avenue.

Built in 1865 for Captain William Irving, the City of New Westminster has owned the house since 1950, and it has since operated as a local heritage centre. The house has mixed Gothic features that were popular in 1800s, but rarely seen in BC as not many buildings have survived from this period.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2020: Waterfront Station

January 18, 2021January 18, 2021
by brucen

In 2009, I received The Gingerbread Architect as a gift. It’s a great book, and it comes with recipes and ingredients for 12 different gingerbread masterpieces. Since then I’ve made a number of gingerbread houses, including 2011’s Urban Brownstone, the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in 2012, the Stewart Farmhouse in 2016, the Hotel Europe in 2017, the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2018, and the Woodward’s Building in 2019.

Waterfront Station, photo taken at Granville and Cordova

This year, for the sixth time, I decided to make my own designs for a gingerbread structure. My inspiration is Waterfront Station, located at the foot of Seymour, on West Cordova.

There were some late nights trying to get this one completed. This project took over 10 pounds of gingerbread dough to bake all of the pieces. I used isomalt (a sugar substitute) to pour all of the the windows this year. The only issue was that the windows did melt away after some time due to the humid winter rain we’ve had.

Originally the Pacific terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway, Waterfront Station is now the last stop on Translink’s Expo Line, Canada Line, as well as the West Coast Express, and the Seabus.

The original building opened in 1914, and was designed in neoclassical style, with a distinctive red brick facade, and ionic columns. When our family moved from Port Alberni to Vancouver in 1984, my parents ran the local newsstand, Western Confectionery. Legend has it that the building is haunted by many ghosts.

Thank you for following along with this one – this building holds a special place as I have many memories of the time spent there. It’s always fun to create something that people enjoy.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2019: Woodward’s Building

January 17, 2020January 18, 2021
by brucen

In 2009, I received The Gingerbread Architect as a gift. It’s a great book, and it comes with recipes and ingredients for 12 different gingerbread masterpieces. Since then I’ve made a number of gingerbread houses, including 2011’s Urban Brownstone, the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in 2012, the Stewart Farmhouse in 2016, the Hotel Europe in 2017, and the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2018.

This year, for the fifth time, I decided to make my own designs for a gingerbread structure. My inspiration is the Woodward’s Building, which brings fond Christmas memories for many people.

At one time this was the premiere shopping destination in Vancouver. The store was famous for its Christmas window displays, and the rotating “W” at the top of the building.

The original building was completed in 1903, and was one of the pioneers of one-stop shopping. In the 1960’s, Woodward’s decline began as people began shopping in suburban shopping malls. In 1993, Woodward’s went bankrupt. The closing of this store accelerated the decline of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. Finally, in 2010, construction of a new mixed-use complex was completed. The brick facade is all that remains of the original building at the corner of Abbott and West Hastings.

I remember walks with our family around the holiday season, peering in the windows of all the Christmas displays. Still a wonderful time in our memories.

A huge thank you to everyone who follows along every year. Hopefully there are others that also have childhood memories of this historic landmark.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2018: Vancouver Art Gallery

December 30, 2018January 17, 2021
by brucen

In 2009, I received The Gingerbread Architect as a gift. It’s a great book, and it comes with recipes and ingredients for 12 different gingerbread masterpieces. Since then I’ve made a number of gingerbread houses, including 2011’s Urban Brownstone, the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in 2012, the Stewart Farmhouse in 2016, and the Hotel Europe in 2017.

This year, for the fourth time, I decided to make my own designs for a gingerbread structure. My inspiration is one of the more recognizable buildings in the downtown area – the Vancouver Art Gallery.

The Vancouver Art Gallery is the largest art gallery in Western Canada. The building used to be the main courthouse in Vancouver. Due to the massive scale of the building, I did need to pare down the scale. I did manage to keep many of the original design features, including the central dome, ionic columns, stonework, and the main front portico.

Again, thank you to everyone who follows along every year. While there are some late nights in December (and sometimes January!), it’s always fun to create something that people enjoy.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2017: Hotel Europe

January 30, 2018January 17, 2021
by brucen

In 2009, I received The Gingerbread Architect as a gift. It’s a great book, and it comes with recipes and ingredients for 12 different gingerbread masterpieces. Since then I’ve made a number of gingerbread houses, including 2011’s Urban Brownstone, the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in 2012, and the Stewart Farmhouse in 2016.

This year, for the third time, I decided to make my own designs for a gingerbread structure. My inspiration came from a real heritage building in Vancouver’s famous Gastown area – the Hotel Europe.

Hotel Europe is a six-story heritage building located at Powell and Alexander in Vancouver, British Columbia. The building was commissioned by hotelier Angelo Calori and completed in 1909 by Parr and Fee Architects. The building is designed in the flatiron style.

This specific building style has only a few pieces, but each is quite large. The entire design has over 100 windows.

The baked gingerbread. I baked other pieces “on the fly” as it was difficult to measure in advance.

Trying out a brick design. The bricks are all cut from Sour Straps candy.

Each of the large side walls is at least 50 inches long. Lots of bricks!

Assembling the walls. This is easier with pins, which allow the icing to dry with the walls in place.

All of the walls are up, with some structural beams in the middle.

Roof is decorated with sanding sugar. Also added trim, and a Sour Gum sidewalk.

Added hand rail around the sidewalk – Popeye Candy Sticks with thin licorice rope.

Detail shot of the start of the road. Sour and regular Gummy Coke Bottles, cut into brick shapes.

Start of an idea for street lamps – pearlized gumballs with Blueberry Candy Sticks.

Finished – lower angle photo from the front.

Thank you to everyone who follows along every year. While there are some late nights in December (and sometimes January!), it’s always fun to create something that people enjoy.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2016: Stewart Farmhouse

January 8, 2017January 17, 2021
by brucen

In 2009, I received The Gingerbread Architect as a gift. It’s a great book, and it comes with recipes and ingredients for 12 different gingerbread masterpieces. Since then I’ve made a number of gingerbread houses, including 2011’s Urban Brownstone, and the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in 2012.

stewart-farmhouse This year, for the second time, I decided to make my own designs for a house. My inspiration came from a real heritage building, right here in Surrey.

The Farmhouse at Stewart Farm was built in 1894 by John and Annie Stewart. The house has that Victorian style and features a veranda and bay windows at the front and side of the house. It is a picturesque site, and one of the most photographed landmarks in Surrey because of it’s romantic old world charm.

Plans are cut from card stock and labelled in a way that makes sense (to me!)

All the pieces are baked. I keep them wrapped with the card stock template.

The external walls are easier to decorate when they’re flat on a table.

Beginning assembly on the board. Royal icing, heavy mugs, and pins hold everything in place.

External walls are all up, and porch floor is also assembled.

Roof assembly nearly complete. Gingerbread needed to be trimmed to make a good fit. Looks like a real construction site.

Beginning roofing. Alternating rows of shingles made of Bubble Tape, and Sour Power Belts.

Roof is complete! Barely had enough material for all the shingles.

Porch is done, complete with stone work detail made from Necco wafers.

Veranda mostly complete, working my way from front door to side of the house.

Railings. I made these by cutting Popeye Candy Sticks in half, and gluing with royal icing.

The veranda is complete, and the railings are assembled and attached.

Finished house, front left view. This shows the detail over the front door.

Finished house, front right view. This shows the detail on the veranda.

Finished house, front view. Light can pass through the windows.

Thank you to everyone who follows along every year. While there are some late nights in December, it’s always fun to create something that people enjoy!

Canucks

Embracing Life – Canuck Place Children’s Hospice

January 22, 2013January 17, 2021
by brucen

inspiration — Canuck Place on a sunny day

Late in December, I began planning my 4th annual gingerbread house. The first few years I baked and decorated recipes found within The Gingerbread Architect, a great how-to book that contains complete plans, directions and blueprints on how to construct some amazing gingerbread creations. I stuck with houses from the book.

Until this year.

My process for building Canuck Place out of gingerbread is documented in my blog post from earlier this month. One week into January, I delivered the gingerbread house to Canuck Place Children’s Hospice.

In case you’ve been living under a rock for 3 months, the NHL locked out it’s players in yet another work stoppage. Although inconvenient and annoying for hockey fans, the casual fan really wasn’t affected all that much. In many cities, there are numerous charitable causes that are directly and indirectly funded by their NHL teams. Some of these in Vancouver are the Canucks Autism Network, the Canucks For Kids Fund, and Canuck Place Children’s Hospice. Not only do 50/50 proceeds go towards these not-for-profits, but there are all forms of fundraising efforts and awareness events throughout the hockey season.

All I wanted to do was make a gift for Canuck Place that would bring some smiles to the kids and families staying there, and the staff that work there. After delivering the gingerbread house, I was fortunate enough to take a tour of Canuck Place.

Canuck Place opened in 1995 as the first free-standing children’s hospice in North America. The staff here provide pediatric palliative care to the kids in British Columbia.

Pediatric palliative care – if you read it quickly it sounds like just another medical term, but what it really means is this: these kids won’t make it to adulthood. They have the greatest medical need, and often are in the most pain, every day of their lives.

The Canuck Place program is unique in that it offers world-class health care within a home-like environment.

Most of the top floor is dedicated to space for families to stay, together. The view of the gardens from the turret windows is beautiful. Another floor functions as a hospital ward, complete with a full complement of medical staff. On the main floor is the kitchen and eating area. Like any home, this is the nerve centre of the house. Everyone comes to the kitchen to sit and eat together. There are staff members there to make meals for the house. The main floor also has the volunteer office, which oversees the coordination of hundreds of volunteers. The rest of the house is an eclectic mix of spaces to create and display artwork, make music, make a mess or make notes.

at_canuck_place — Myself (centre), with Gareth (left) and Roxy (right) of the Canuck Place kitchen staff.

Thank you to Christina Low (@canuckplace) for helping with the delivery arrangements and the tour of the amazing facility.

We all have stresses and difficult times in our lives. We all get caught up in the drama of just living from day to day. I couldn’t help but try to think about how these kids make it through their days. It certainly puts my own “tough days” into perspective.