The Home Makeover crew doesn’t have much on a gaggle of women who gathered here Thursday evening to hone their construction skills.
In less than three hours, nine women transformed graham crackers and powdered meringue, turned to paste with a dash of water, into a variety of small houses during a training session at the assembly room in Allen County Courthouse. They were tutored and practiced what they learned in preparation for the Iola Area Chamber of Commerce annual Gingerbread House Contest, a feature of local Christmas holiday festivities.
Barbara Chalker Anderson, Donna Houser and Kathy McEwan gave pointers and offered advice.
Crystal Tomlinson had a little trouble cutting graham cracker slabs to fit properly. She quickly became adroit with McEwan’s assistance. Debbie Lake, Humboldt, drew attention when all stopped to admire how she had used pretzel twists for windows in both ends of her tiny house.
Others overcame building collapses — it’s hard to get just the right combination of meringue “concrete,” particularly when fingers are covered with the sticky stuff — but weren’t deterred. They forged back and by the time the session wound down, all had a good foundation in gingerbread house construction.
CHALKER-ANDERSON explained at the top of the evening that whatever was constructed, all except the base, had to be edible.
With gingerbread (graham crackers) — a recipe for true gingerbread was handed out — as the main construction material, palate appeal had a good start. A broad array of candies — Smarties and peppermint were in evidence, along with jelly beans — were at hand, along with pretzels and other fancy delights.
Doesn’t matter what construction materials were used, said Chalker-Anderson, as long as “you can eat it.”
Thursday night’s class was a start for anyone who wanted a head start on preparing an entry for the contest. Most entries will take hours to construct and will be large and intricately designed. The entries will grace windows in downtown Iola stores.
The deadline to register is Friday at the Chamber office, 208 W. Madison, where a copy of rules may be obtained. Creations must be in place by 5 p.m. Nov. 23.
A grand prize, decided by a baking professional, will be given, with emphasis on originality, detail, beauty and technique. First-place runners-up will be selected by popular vote from four categories: Business and industry; individuals, families and friends; school classrooms and nursing homes; clubs and organizations.
A consideration is to use components that won’t spoil, Chalker-Anderson reminded.
Gingerbread construction under way
