gingerbread lessons

Yesterday morning my daughter and I set out for a neighboring town, where we participated in a gingerbread house making party. A chef friend had offered three cooking classes in exchange for a ms read I did for her, and yesterday was the first.

She has a lovely dedicated kitchen (huge, with gigantic windows all around) apart from her home, equipped with all the beautiful, functional kitchen supplies anyone would ever need. The sense of creation was abundant there - I knew it would be a place for fun and inspiration the moment we went through the white iron archway on the path from house to kitchen.

The gingerbread "pieces" had been pre-baked and were waiting for each participant on a foil covered piece of very sturdy cardboard, four to each worktable. There was an "icing" station to get icing bags filled and refilled. The sound of the cobalt blue KitchenAid mixer was the backdrop work song. Every table had an array of decorating candies and supplies: red licorice, pretzel logs, frosted wheat cereal blocks, christmas candies of every color, peppermints in every size and shape, chocolate kisses, gumdrops, candy beads and sprinkles, m&ms in green and red, tiny marshmallows, "peeps" christmas trees and snowmen.

Within about two minutes we had white icing all over shirts, sleeves, in hair, and yes, on the gingerbread house. We went a bit overboard with the icing trying to make sure the structure was sound. It seemed to be, but when we put the roof on, way too soon, the thing collapsed. We started over. We got support from the other gingerbread builders. We stopped now and then to watch other collapses, other roofings, and then got back to work.

I love the creative process. I love what getting my hands deep in a project does for my perfectionistic tendencies. I start out wanting something to be one very specific way. It often doesn't work - either I've set my goals way too high, or I get too locked into that "one way." But the magic happens when the process itself takes over and pushes me to let go of that initial "ideal" and allow other things to manifest.

It was when I let go of the icing being perfectly aligned, with little whip points, that things got fun.

Our gingerbread house ended up being completely frosted in white, and completely covered in decorative patterns and colors. We got the roof pieces decorated and put on. It was gorgeous! It was whimsical, it was a bit over the top, but it had a certain magical style that happened when it went from controlled to "let it flow."

And of course, with all our attempts to ensure its safe transport from there back home, it collapsed one wall at a time on the drive. But we managed to get it back together so it could be seen and appreciated - before the nibbling started!