86-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 13, 2003
Katie and Belinda team together to add icing artistic
touches to the gingerbread animals. The royal icing they
use for holding together and decorating the components
works like a culinary cement.
Gingerbread Ark
Floats To New Heights
JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Correspondent
DALLASTOWN (York Co.)
A winning York Fair gingerbread
creation has made it to the big
time.
Katie Myers’ gingerbread ark,
complete with its parade of two
by-two animals, took first place
in its category at the York Fair in
September. Her mother, perenni
al regional baking contest winner
Belinda Myers, arranged to have
a professional photograph taken
of the culinary creation. Belinda
submitted the photograph with
an entry form to the “Good
Housekeeping” magazine’s annu
al gingerbread contest.
The gingerbread ark snagged
third place in the national contest
and a $5OO prize.
Belinda and Katie split the
prize money, then put their heads
together in the family’s Spring
field Township farm kitchen to
remember the details of how the
creation had been fashioned from
original patterns they designed.
The magazine needed step-by
step directions since it planned to
have the gingerbread ark recre
ated by a professional chef and
displayed this holiday season,
along with other top contest win
ners, at New York City’s Rocke
feller Square.
This mother-daughter culinary
duo has had its ups and downs
along the gingerbread contest
path. In 2002, the first year that
the York Fair held the Brer Rab
bit molasses-sponsored ginger
bread competition, Belinda and
Katie built a bam. The barn was
fashioned, of course, out of their
Grandma’s Gingerbread recipe,
complete with appropriate ani
mals and accessories, including a
silo.
On their arrival at the fair with
the intricately-decorated bam,
they learned that the category
had the unusual requirement of a
dozen cookies to be submitted for
the judges’ taste-testing. Most
contests call for a half-dozen
cookies. They tried, unsuccess
fully, to halve each of their six
cookies to meet the requisite
dozen.
“I told Katie at the time that I
felt there was some special thing
the gingerbread barn was sup
posed to be meant for,” Belinda
says, relating how they swal
lowed their disappointment at
lht
, ■■
the submission error and hauled
it back home.
In a classic lemons-to-lemon
ade move, the gingerbread barn
was donated for fundraising dur
ing the junior livestock sale. The
sale generated proceeds of
$7,000, which the juniors had
voted earlier to donate to the Red
Cross’ post-Sept. 11 disaster ef
fort.
This year’s gingerbread con
struction was a unique challenge,
due to the ark’s curved shape. In
corporating a giraffe, with its
head poked out through the roof,
required an extra measure of
deftness as well, so as not to
break either the roof or the gi
raffe’s long, delicate gingerbread
neck in the process.
Cereal squares provided ap
propriate shingles for the roof, as
well as shredding handily for in
terior animal “bedding.” The
ark’s two-by-two animal parade
included chickens and cows, pigs,
rabbits, elephants, lions, butter
flies, all air-brushed with food
color painted touches. A pair of
sugar bees alighted on a green
icing-covered, ice-cream-cone
pine tree. Perched on the top of
the ark, which appeared to have
come to rest in a pretzel-fenced
setting of royal icing grass, was a
sugar dove.
And, all that had to fit into the
required 12x 12-inch display area.
“Getting it there was fun, too,
with all the holes and bumps in
the roads,” said Katie of the trip
to transport the fragile, fmished
creation.
Katie opted not to leave her
winning ark at the display area
once the judging was complete
and the ark bore a blue ribbon.
Instead, she and Belinda careful
ly moved it back to their kitchen,
where it sat for a few weeks in
the oven, with a candle burning
to keep the gingerbread from get
ting damp. Meanwhile, Belinda
contacted several professional
photographers before finally find
ing one who would agree to pic
ture their gingerbread structure.
“Every time we needed to use
the oven, we would carefully take
it out, change the racks, set it
aside, then put it back in when
we were finished,” said Belinda.
By the time the ark had been
photographed against a blue
background suggestive of dimish-
Finding animal cookie cutters of the appropriate size and type to complement the
ark’s dimensions was a challenge, but worth it. This ark took first prized at the York Fair
in September and placed third nationally in “Good Housekeeping” magazine’s annual
gingerbread contest.
ing waters, hurricane Isabel had
dumped her own moisture across
the region, wreaking mold and
mildew havoc. Dampness is a
death blow to crisp, sturdy gin
gerbread, causing it to soften and
sag. Mold was spreading across
the ark when Belinda and Katie
took one long, last look at their
hours of work, then dumped it
over the fence to their beef herd.
“The cows loved it,” Katie
said, chuckling about how quick
ly the cows devoured the ginger
bread treat.
Meanwhile, Belinda was liter
ally scouring the countryside for
the December 2002 magazine
edition that included the entry
form for the gingerbread contest.
After checking several medical
and dental office magazine
stacks, she finally tracked a copy
down at the local library.
Then, she hit another snag.
Her original entry paperwork
was returned in the mail. The
post office box listed in the con
test’s published address had been
accidentally closed. Notification
of the win, and receipt of the
prize check, made all the entry
frustrations just part of the mem
ory.
The Myers’ began entering
local food contests many years
ago, and Katie has ribbons for
winning cookies baked when she
was barely tall enough to roll
dough at the table. Enrolling as a
student at York County School of
Technology, Katie initially con
sidered studying in diesel me
chanics, but ultimately settled on
the school’s culinary program.
A regular assistant to her fa
ther, Andy, with the farm’s beef
and crops chores, Katie returned
to Vo-Tech for night courses in
the diesel mechanics program.
She works part-time at a neigh
bor’s dairy farm and is consid
ering returning to school for ani
mal-related studies.
Along with the usual crush of
baking specialities for the Christ
mas holidays, the mother-daugh
ter duo is focusing on the upcom
ing Pennsylvania Farm Show
culinary contests. Both have
qualified in the Hershey cocoa
competition, Katie with one of
her favorite flavor combinations,
chocolate and mint. She whipped
another pair of flavor favorites
into a quickbread, qualifying in
that category with an innovative
cheese and spinach creation.
Belinda is also eligible for the
quickbreads category, along with
qualifying with apple and shoofly
pies and pineapple upside-down
cake.
In addition to helping with the family’s beef and crops
operation, Katie is employed part-time on a neighboring
dairy farm.
The Farm Show competition
wraps up the culinary contest
season across the region for sev
eral months.
One thing is certain though,
Katie and Belinda will be busy in
the kitchen whipping up trial
runs for the next new culinary
challenge.
TWO-BY-TWO GRANDMA’S
GINGERBREAD
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
VA cup Brer Rabbit dark mo
lasses
2 eggs, beaten
5 to 5Vi cups flour
I teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cloves
Melt shortening in a small
sauce pan over low heat just until
melted. Add in order, sugar, mo
lasses, and eggs. Mix well. Cool
slightly. Add flour 1 cup at a time
plus baking soda, salt, ginger,
cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
Mix well. Turn onto a well
floured surface and knead to
make a firm stiff dough by hand
(you may need a little flour).
Chill for at least three hours or
overnight. When ready to roll, set
out for at least IVi hours for easi
er rolling. Roll out on a lightly
floured surface '/i-inch thick.
Using various pattern ark shaped
pieces, and animal-shaped cookie
cutters. Lay pieces on parch
ment-covered cookie sheets plac
ing 1 inch apart. Bake in a 375
degree oven for 9 to 12 minutes
(smaller pieces may not take as
long).
To build the ark, glue pieces
together with royal icing.
Royal Icing:
3 tablespoons meringue pow
der
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
6 tablespoons water
Beat all ingredients for royal in
a large mixer bowl. Whip with
wire whip until icing makes stiff
peaks.
Keep covered with damp towel
while working.
Color-flow (using a small
amount of royal icing, add a few
drops of water to make a thick
liquid consistency. Icing is ready
when stirred, the mix will smooth
out at a count of 10). The animal
shapes are colored flowed on one
side. Let dry until hard. Color
with various shades.
Place on foil-covered card
board. Use grass decorating tube
covered base to hold animal
shapes in place.