Gingerbread Creations | Transcend Design

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

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

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

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

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.

Canucks

Gingerbread 2012: Canuck Place Children’s Hospice

January 1, 2013January 17, 2021
by brucen

A few years ago 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.

Last year, I opted to make the Urban Brownstone, which is rated as one of the more difficult houses to make in the book. Despite the written difficulty level, I found the baking of the walls to be pretty easy, and the decorating wasn’t too difficult. In my blog post summarizing that build, I wrote:

Next year, I am strongly considering making my own house out of gingerbread.

Perhaps I was just a bit too ambitious with my plans this year.

My inspiration: Canuck Place Children’s Hospice, also known as Glen Brae Manor, also known as the Tait Mansion.

Canuck Place provides care for children with life-threatening illnesses, and support for those kid’s families. The kids that stay here have access to the best palliative care that is available, at a first rate facility – the first of it’s kind in North America.

Players from the Vancouver Canucks are often seen at Canuck Place to visit – to put smiles on kid’s faces, and perhaps to keep their own lives in perspective.

Usually during a regular NHL season, there are great fundraising efforts for Canuck Place and awareness through those efforts is elevated. During the lockout this year, I thought it might be a fun idea to donate this year’s gingerbread house to Canuck Place. And what better building to model than the hospice itself!

The structure is a heritage building within the Shaughnessy neighbourhood in Vancouver, BC. It is a 4-story mansion, built in 1910. It has very distinctive domed turrets, and features curved exterior walls on nearly every side of the house. There is a large covered porch at the front of the mansion, as well as on the east and west sides of the building.

Design of exterior walls. Many pieces and this didn’t even include turrets, domes, roof, dormers.

One of my major design concerns was being able to bake a dome out of gingerbread. I used a ball-shaped cake pan here.

Another concern was being able to bend gingerbread to fit the many curved walls in the building. Here I used card stock paper over a rough LEGO mold for support.

The turrets didn’t come out perfectly round. A happy coincidence since light from the inside needed to come through anyway.

Beginning to assemble the walls with a complex system of coffee mugs. Knowing the rough dimensions of the building was useful in figuring out where the walls would go.

More of the exterior walls up, held together by royal icing. The turrets didn’t fit quite right, so I ended up shaving off thin bits here.

At this point I was able to actually design, measure and bake the roof pieces.

Domes and half of the roof are attached here with icing, supports, and pins (removed later) to hold the pieces on.

Lower portion of 3 porches are attached, and the roof is tiled here with Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape, which is available everywhere until you look for it. =)

Front porch roof is attached and decorated. Dormers were baked and attached also.

Detail shot of the front walk way, made with broken Necco wafers.

Detail shot of the West porch, from the rear of the house. Railings are made from piped royal icing.

Detail shot of the East porch, from the rear of the house. Grass is made from coconut, mixed with good ole green Food Club Food Colouring.

Overhead photo of the house, showing the landscaping layout.

Detail shot of the front yard. Shrubs and trees are made of Rice Krispie treats, with green food colouring added to the marshmallow mix.

That’s it! I have to thank my wife Marnie for being the voice of reason, and for the use of her equipment – it helps to have a cake decorator for a wife when you need to make 10 pounds of gingerbread dough. It also helped immensely to have her creativity and an extra set of steady hands. I’d also like to thank Dianna (@Dianna_Chr) for arranging access to the Canuck Place grounds, and Dawn (@light_and_lit) for some good baking advice.

Hope you enjoyed the post as much as I enjoyed making this house!

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2011: Urban Brownstone Complete

December 16, 2011January 17, 2021
by brucen

A few years ago I received this as a gift. The Gingerbread Architect is a great book, and it comes with recipes and ingredients for 12 different gingerbread masterpieces.

This year, I opted to make the Urban Brownstone, which is rated as one of the more difficult houses to make in the book. Despite the written difficulty level, I found the baking of the walls to be pretty easy, and the decorating wasn’t too difficult either. It was definitely easier going than last year’s Second Empire house.

Next year, I am strongly considering making my own house out of gingerbread.

Without further ado – here are the photos from my process this year. Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed making this year’s house. Happy Holidays everyone!

Plans - enlarged, copied and cut from The Gingerbread Architect.	Rolling and cutting 8 pounds of gingerbread dough. This was the front wall piece, which needed the windows cut out.
Everything is baked at this point. Here I've melted hard butterscotch candies into the windows, and piped icing for mullions.	The base for the house. I cut a hole in the base to string the LED lights through, and ran the AC cord out the back.
Pre-construction tools. Icing, piping bag, various tips for the bag, and that's what she said.	First wall is up on the board, held up with a complex system of coffee mugs.
Four outside walls are up. Held together with pins while the icing "glue" dries.	View of the inside. Lights in a bunch at the bottom. I used more pins to secure the lights higher on the vertical gingerbread struts.
Details - front stairs, door below the stoop, Rice Krispies hedge, mini Chiclets patio.	Details - sanding sugar roof, Candy Bloks chimney.
Details - front door, flower baskets, windows boxes with flowers and leaves.	Money shot! With the windows lit, you can almost see people having holiday parties inside.
Another shot of the finished house. Party on Wayne! Party on Garth!

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2011: Urban Brownstone

November 26, 2011January 17, 2021
by brucen

A few years ago I received this as a gift. The Gingerbread Architect is a great book, and it comes with recipes and ingredients for 12 different gingerbread masterpieces.

It’s a good coffee table book, as it has plenty of photographs of the houses, blueprint plans for each house, and excellent step-by-step instruction. The only downside is that some of the candies are not that easy to come by in Canada, as the book was written and published in the States.

Unlike my wife, who is an excellent baker and makes amazing cakes, I have very little baking and decorating experience, so some of the plans are intimidating. In 2009, I worked up enough courage to give one of these houses a try.

2009_house — Gingerbread 2009: Victorian Farmhouse. My first attempt at a nice looking house.

I opted for the “Victorian Farmhouse” which is also featured on the cover of the book. Making the gingerbread dough and baking the pieces was quite easy, while the decorating (piping the icing, rolling fondant, cutting shingles and bricks) was quite time consuming. I had to do everything after dinner and after the kids were put to bed for the evening as well, as there isn’t a lot of time to spare around our house. The entire work is definitely a labour of love, as it took me a few weeks to get it all done. I was happy with the result though!

Last year I attempted the “Second Empire House”. I took more time to take pictures along the way, and documented some of the steps in the pictures below.

Plans laid out with the gingerbread dough.	Most of the large pieces baked, twice to melt windows.
Putting up walls with large mugs. Icing and pins to hold things together.	Walls and roof and front entrance put together. With live tweeting of course!
The roof took forever.	The house is finished! Yes, the inside is lit! =)

This year, I’m planning on making an Urban Brownstone – if you’ve been in large cities like New York, it will look familiar to you: tall building, front stoop offset from center. In fact, if you’ve seen Sesame Street, it might look familiar to you. I probably won’t add Oscar the Grouch out front!