Its a Gingerbread Lighthouse!

Here at the Casual Gourmet we are gearing up for Christmas. While Christmas orders are keeping the phones busy in the office, the bakers have been keeping busy by preparing our beautiful gingerbread houses. This year Marcy and Barbara are building a new gingerbread house for Heritage Museums & Gardens. Below you will find step by step pictures and the process behind the Gingerbread Lighthouse.

The Gingerbread Dough was mixed and then Rolled out into thick slabs.

the walls and the basic structure of the lighthouse were cut out of the dough

all the pieces were then laid out to bake

once the pieces came out of the oven, Marcy began to decorate them with Royal Icing

the roof for the structure was cut out of gum paste with a cookie cutter

 the pieces were then layered together to form the roof

 the entire gingerbread house sat on cookie base

 Rice Krispy Treats were used to give it a 3D look to the water and the rocks on which the Lighthouse sat on

The lighthouse was then filled on the inside by the same rice krispy treats to give it a more sturdy base

icing was spread all over the base to give the effect of snow

Whats a Lighthouse without a Lightkeeper? a smaller house next to the Lighthouse for the keeper was built.

Barbara puts the finishing touches on their beautiful work of art

and Voila the final product!

The Lighthouse was taken to Heritage Museum and Gardens to be displayed during their Gardens AGLOW  exhibit. The Lighthouse was also featured in the Cape Cod Times.

This year we are seeing a few new trends with wedding cake design.  One in particular is what the cake decorators and I like to refer to as the “Betty Crocker” cake.  Instead of smoothly iced sides these cakes have a fluffier less uniformed look to the icing usually accented by a colored ribbon to match the colors they have chosen for the wedding.  Fresh flowers to match the bridal bouquet, usually provided by the bride’s florist, are cut and placed on the top and around the tiers of the cake adding an additional splash of color.

On a side note, we want to wish last weekend’s brides all the best and say thank you for letting us be a part of your special day!