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Feature article
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DKA contest showcases edible art
By Fred Sauceman
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| “How to Build a Gingerbread House: A Step-By-Step Guide to Sweet Results" by Christina Banner |
The fourth annual Downtown Kingsport Association Gingerbread House Contest will showcase the best of our region’s edible architecture during an open house from 4 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, in the lobby of Regions Bank on Church Circle in Kingsport.
On hand for a book-signing that afternoon and evening will be Christina Banner of Newland, N.C. She’ll be signing copies of her new book “How to Build a Gingerbread House: A Step-By-Step Guide to Sweet Results.”
I first interviewed Christina back in 2004, after she had won the World Series of gingerbread, the National Gingerbread House Competition, at The Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa in Asheville, North Carolina. Her winning entry was a five-sided view of Christmas traditions observed in the United States, Russia, England, France and Italy.
Imagine building an Eiffel Tower out of gingerbread, and you get some idea of the patience this art form requires. Christina’s new book assumes no prior knowledge or skill, though. It starts out with simple instructions to make a basic gingerbread dough and royal icing, the material that not only decorates but supports gingerbread structures.
Homemade snow is easy enough: half a cup of granulated sugar and two heaping tablespoons of sweetened flaked coconut.
With a series of color photographs, Christina offers ideas on how to roof the finished house: Necco wafers, shredded wheat, Life cereal, M&Ms, vanilla wafers and even chewing gum for a shingled look.
This isn’t just a book for Christmastime. Christina walks readers through the steps to build a Happy Birthday House, a Valentine’s Day House, a St. Patrick’s Day House, an Easter Bunny’s House, and my personal favorite, the Spooky Spider Shack. It’s roofed with candy corn and features a chocolate cookie spider with licorice legs.
“A gingerbread house is a wonderfully approachable form of sugar art,” writes Christina in the book’s introduction. “Children will delight in slathering icing all over their house, covering every inch with candy. Cake decorating experts will thrill in carefully planning and constructing a gingerbread house that is nothing short of a masterpiece.
“This book was written with both in mind. Beginners will learn how to construct their first house, and then find fun and easy decorating ideas and finishing touches. A more advanced decorator will learn new ideas for decorating a gingerbread project; from windows, to shingles, to landscaping.”
After taking the top prize in the 2004 competition in Asheville, Christina went on to win the Food Network’s Gingerbread Challenge.
The fourth annual Downtown Kingsport Association Gingerbread House Contest is sponsored by Regions Bank, Holston Medical Group, Barefoot Chameleon, Food City, Stir Fry Café, Urban Synergy, Mark Freeman Associates, Domtar, Chef’s Pizzeria, Spoden and Wilson, and Tri-Cities Casket Company. For more information, call DKA at 423-246-6550.
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Food writer Fred Sauceman, author of the book “The Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South — from Bright Hope to Frog Level,” is senior writer and executive assistant to the president for public affairs at East Tennessee State University. E-mail him at sauceman@etsu.edu.
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