Episode 61 – Merry Mischief Bakers

Featuring the Merry Mischief Bakers, winners of the 2020 US National Gingerbread House Competition: Ted Scutti, Adam Starkey, Tim Stewart, Evonne Darby, and Sachiko Windbiel.

MP3

Eat the Evidence Â· Episode 61 – Merry Mischief Bakers

Show Notes

Here are some photos of their amazing piece:

You can view the official video of the event showing the other pieces as well here.

The human figure I mention that I print out (adjusting to scale as needed each time) for my fondant figure work is on my newbie tutorial page for figures here. The piece of mine Ted mentioned where the judge had taught me to wipe the scissors between every cut is here. I will have a post up about humidity and gingerbread soon, hopefully in the next couple of days, and will link it here at that time, but it’s also something Stacy Frank and I discussed at length in this podcast episode. My post about using a plastic box for carryon with sugar art is here, and the one about making a foam-core box for ultra-secure carryon and security clearance is here.

Here’s Ted’s photo of the back of the car with all of the pieces packed:

And my photo of the shelf above my with the sticker Sachiko gave me at CI:

And confirming this is the colour I use to tint icing to match my gingerbread:

Ted graciously sent me his recipes for ginger clay and ginger stone so they are here:

Gingerclay Recipe

Based on the original recipe by Pat Ashley Howard

Gingerclay works well for molded or handcrafted embellishments. It can be molded and baked, molded and left to air dry, and is great for non-structural components. Rolled out, it can be textured with rolling pins or texture sheets.

This recipe can be doubled.

Ingredients

Ginger Flour – 10 ounces / 2 cups
All-Purpose Flour, King Arthur – 1 1/4 ounces / 1/4 cup
Gum Arabic – 4 teaspoons / 12 grams
Tylose Powder – 4 Tablespoons / 36 grams
CK Super White Powdered Food Color – Light Tan – 36 grams / 4 jars, Medium Tan – 18 grams / 2 jars, Brown – 4 1/2 grams / 1/2 jar
Water (warm) 5 1/2 ounces

Prepare Ginger Flour

Check that baked gingerbread cookies are very dry throughout. If moist, place overnight in the Excalibur Food Dehydrator with no heat. Keep the dehydrator running until all cookies are sanded because they will pick up moisture from the atmosphere. Moist gingerbread will crumble rather than sand down into very fine particles. Pre-baked gingerbread from Wilton kits also works.
Sand the cookies into a very fine powder over 100 grit sand paper flat on a cutting board. Hold two cookies back to back to speed the process. The powder should feel like flour. Sanding is the preferred and quickest method to create the ginger flour and it yields the finest material.
Use a pastry brush to clear the crumbs from the sand paper and cutting board; place the crumbs into a bowl.
Sift the ginger flour through a large sieve into a large bowl with the pastry brush. Discard the larger particles.
Store in an airtight container unit proceeding with the next step.

Mix Gingerclay

Sift (with a sieve and pastry brush) the ginger flour (to remove any remaining chunks), all-purpose flour, gum arabic, tylose and white food color powder in a 7 quart KitchenAid mixing bowl. â€œSiftâ€ with the paddle attachment on Stir speed.
With the mixer running on Stir speed, slowly add the water. Mix until smooth. If using gel color, dissolve the color in the water before adding it to the mixing bowl. If mixture is sticky, add more ginger flour.
Flatten the Gingerclay. Wrap tightly in food service film, place in a Ziplock bag and refrigerate overnight. For long term storage, place in a Food Saver bag and freeze.
Bring to room temperature.
Roll out on a Silpat. If the rolling pin sticks, use corn starch; not flour.
Texture and shape as desired.
Dry overnight in the Excalibur Food Dehydrator with no heat. Or bake on a Silpat at very low heat. Dried Gingerclay shrinks by 10 – 20% depending upon the mass of the item.

Ginger Stone Recipe

Ingredients

100 grams white Satin Ice gum paste
20 grams sifted ginger flour
Crisco (as needed)

Knead gum paste and ginger flour together until smooth with a consistent light brown color. Add Crisco as needed until pliable. Wrap in food service film to avoid drying out.

Ginger stone may stiffen after resting, but will become pliable again with Crisco kneaded in.