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Gingerbread House of Cards: The Making of a Cookie Collaboration

Thank you for this opportunity to share a fun Christmas gingerbread collaboration project. For me, it started when I found the cookie community, nearly a year ago now, and just fell in love! I loved the art, the clear camaraderie of everyone blogging and chatting on Facebook, and most of all, the collaborations. The first one I saw was on Lilaloa's blog, a group of cookiers turning Christmas cards into cookies. It just looked like so much fun!   When I started my page, The Cookie Architect, my goal was simply to jump into the conversation and share my newfound love of the art of cookies, but my dream was to participate in one of those great cookie collaborations. So this is a tale of a dream come true!

 

JoyMost of my best ideas start from a question like this:

 

"Why on Earth are people talking about Christmas cookies?!? It's August!!" 

 

Before I know it, I'm thinking about gingerbread season in the heat of summer, and trying to figure out how to apply my cookie art love to my next big project.  

 

 

"Hmmmm . . . Something that can be built out of cookie-size pieces, like a house of cards."

 

Cue "house of cards" search on Pinterest. I'm an architect, so when the most popular result (after the TV show) was a card game designed by modernist architects Charles and Ray Eames, I knew I was onto something. Their cards had notches cut into them that you could build into a variety of shapes. And they were printed with random modern images. And they were cool.

 

Eames House of Cards1Eames_House_of_Cards_Med_601_large

 

So now I've decided to build a gingerbread house of cards. It's August (Did I mention that already?!) And I'm so excited that I go blabbing my idea to some cookie friends, and it occurs to me as I'm telling them about it - "Hey! I should just make the cards, and get cookie artists and friends to decorate them and then I will put them all together. That would be THE BEST!!" The friends with whom I was talking agreed, and a collaboration was born.  

 

But wait, there are 32 cards in the deck, so I had to come up with more than the half a dozen who'd signed up so far. And I thought, well, I'll just ask a bunch of people, dream big, and see what happens. What happened is I asked cookie friends, cookie idols, and my mom. And they all pretty much said yes!

 

Idols   "Oh dear, now I'm in over my            head!" 

                                                             Deep breaths . . . make

   a spreadsheet and collect                  everyone's addresses. Start

   sending out what will turn into a

   million emails. Make a template for

   the cookie, and then come the

   middle of October, make the

   cookies!

   

   The cookies had to be strong, and I'd made elaborate constructions from gingerbread before, so I already had a great recipe. The secret to this recipe is the corn syrup. The cookie ends up being part cookie, part candy . . . hard candy. Next up, I knew that the cookies would have to be an even thickness, so that they would notch together, so I got two basswood strips from the craft store as rolling guides. And then comes the part that might seem like the tricky part - the notches. In order to interlock a number of cookies, the notches would have to be very consistent, with square edges. From my previous gingerbread experience, I had just the solution:

 

  BandsawBlank Cookies

The bandsaw (or the jigsaw, if a shop isn't handy). For my gingerbread work, I bake up the gingerbread in sheets, trace the pieces on to the cookie, and cut them out on the saw. Near perfect pieces every time. In the end. I baked and cut out about 50.

 

Miles of bubble wrap and a wince-inducing swipe of the credit card (Canadian shipping! ouch!) later, and cards were winging themselves all over North America. Only one broke on the way out, but a replacement card was found, and everyone got to decorating!

 

MadonnaCards started to trickle in - so much beauty! Do you ever wonder if the cookie art you see is *really* that beautiful? I'm here to tell you, they ALL really were THAT BEAUTIFUL. My hands would shake sometimes opening the boxes. I was worried that I would break them, just unraveling the bubble wrap.  

 

In true cookier procrastination fashion, the last week was the busiest, what with me decorating my cookie, and making some spare cookies for those hidden inside spots, and generally preparing myself. Some of the cards needed to be repaired, as they had broken in transit. In one case, I cut the fondant off the cookie with dental floss and applied it to a new cookie. Okay, two cookies - I figured while I had it apart I could turn it into two panels for the tower. In another, the royal icing was hard, but the cookie had gotten damp and disintegrated. I scraped the cookie right off the royal icing and trimmed and reapplied the icing to another cookie - icing transfers usually are on wax paper! In many cases I also had to trim a little icing out of the way of the notches - I'd forgotten the importance of leaving space for the two interlocking cookies to miss each other. I learned that royal icing can be very strong - I used a mini chisel and a X-Acto blade, and a lot of patience!


IMG_0186

When it came time for construction, I built a design out of the "real" House of Cards deck that my son and I play with. I spread out the cookies so I could see them, and got out the Post-it notes. I assigned cookies to spots based on both logistical and artistic factors.  

 

Some of the heavier and thicker ones I wanted on the lowest level for support, and there were color and content themes that I wanted to tie together as you looked at it, so it didn't come across as a random mix. I had such amazing cookies to work with - my only regret was that it was going to be hard to see both sides of some cookies.

 

But in the end, it all worked - even with a few last-minute additions! In fact, the whole thing can be taken apart and put together in a variety of ways, because it is just notched together.

 

And the results . . . Well, you can see for yourself! And don't forget to scroll down to see all of the amazing contributions close up. You can also see more pictures at The Cookie Architect on Facebook. It's the best cookie card collection a girl could dream of! 

 

me with house

   The Cookie Architect (Rebecca Weld) and The Gingerbread House of Cards

  

House of Cards 1

Here it is! I think of this as the front door! The overall size of the house is 14 inches (36 cm) by 14 inches (36 cm) by 15 inches (38 cm) tall, with each card 5 x 3.5 inches (12.7 x 9 cm).

 

House of Cards 4

I did the un-iced cards with the cutouts so that the cards in the very middle of the house wouldn't need to be some of the beautiful contributions I'd received. I put the star cookie on the right so you could get a better glimpse of some of the colors and art on the inside of the tower.

 

House of Cards 7 

The Nativity section - I loved the recurring themes that happened!

 

 House of Cards 9                 

  

House of Cards 11      

Collages1

1. Katie Kavanagh Fowler

2. Melissa Joy Fanciful Cookies and More

3. Cupookie

4. Delightful Bitefuls

5. SweetAmbs

6. Buttercup Cookie

7. Cindy's Cozy Kitchen

8. Mom of The Cookie Architect (Janet Learned)

  Collages2

1. Mighty Delighty

2. Sweet C's Bake Shop

3. Seahorse Sweets

4. Cakey Bakey

5. The Sugared Apron

6. Cookie Bliss

7. Gigi's Fresh Baked

 

Collages3

1. Arty McGoo

2. Haniela's

3. Jill FCS

4. Lilaloa

5. Memories of Home

6. Sweet Shop Natalie

7. The Baked Equation

8. The Cookie Architect 

 

Collages41. Love at First Bite

2. The Sweet Adventures of SugarBelle

3. Yankee Girl Yummies

4. Salsa Sweets

5. Semi Sweet Designs

6. iBakery

7. Hall of Cookie Tragedies: Broken in process  

    from Sweet Hope Cookies and Sugar Rush Custom Cookies 

 

[EDITOR'S NOTE: What a remarkable collaboration! I soooo regret that my schedule would not allow me to take part. Rebecca, thank you so much not only for organizing this epic event, but also for writing such an illustrative post!]

Attachments

Images (19)
  • Joy Cookie: Cookie and Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • Eames House of Cards 1: Via Pinterest
  • Eames House of Cards 2: Via Pinterest
  • Cookie Idols: Cookies/Photos By Respective Cookie Idols
  • Bandsaw: Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • Blank Cookies: Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • Madonna Cookie: Cookie By Arty McGoo
  • The Cookie Architect with House: Photo Courtesy of The Cookie Architect
  • Trial House Assembly: Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • House of Cards 1: Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • House of Cards 2: Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • House of Cards 3: Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • House of Cards 4: Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • House of Cards 5: Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • House of Cards 6: Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • Cookie Collage 1: Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • Cookie Collage 2: Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • Cookie Collage 3: Photo By The Cookie Architect
  • Cookie Collage 4: Photo By The Cookie Architect

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Comments (16)

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This project, this art - truly amazing.  The cookier's who worked on this are blessed with such a gift, and to take time out of their busy Christmas seasons to work on their own special part because one of their cookie friends had a vision?!?  That is what makes this even more special.  I am so in awe of everything I see on CC - but this? Well, it takes the...err..cookie!  Congratulations to all involved and thank you for sharing so much of yourselves with us.  Merry Christmas!! 

This collaboration is truly an incredibly fantasbulous project and it could not happen without the talented and brilliant mind of Rebecca, the true architect at heart!! You should be so very proud of yourself, MY cookie architect!! I am so honored to be a part of your imagination so perfectly executed!! KUDOS!!

I am so honored to have been asked to take part in this wonderful project of Rebecca's. It turned out better than I could have ever imagined! I just want to stare at it all day long but I really need to be making cookies!!!!!

It's such a great thing!

I saw some pictures on other sites and fell in love with this house of gingerbread-cards.Thinking about how you shaped the gingerbreads so perfectly for fitting so close and solid.The bandsaw is the perfect solution, working with hard cookies!

I already shaped softer cookies with scissors,but had to be very carful,cutting quite slowly, works for strightening borders.

But theres now your great idea of using a jigsaw for harder cookies,so awesome.

 

So beautiful and perfect result!

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