The Gingerbread Architect: Recipes and Blueprints for Twelve Classic American Homes

by Susan Matheson, Lauren Chattman

What happens when an architect who is also an avid baker gets together with a house-obsessed pastry chef? Twelve classic American homes rendered in gingerbread.

Are you dreaming of a colonial Christmas? Here’s your chance to build a traditional Cape Cod house in freshly baked gingerbread, complete with breath-mint pinnacles, Twizzler shingles, and a brick-red fruit-leather chimney. Prefer nineteenth-century New York elegance? Why not whip up an urban brownstone, embellished with crushed butterscotch windows, Tootsie Roll staircase posts, and a front courtyard tiled in mini Chiclets. Is the Santa Fe look more your style? Try a gingerbread pueblo, landscaped with rock-candy cacti and turbinado-sugar sand.

Here to guide you through every step of building your gingerbread dream house is The Gingerbread Architect , created by New York— and London-based architect Susan Matheson and professional baker Lauren Chattman. Featuring detailed blueprints and elevations of the houses alongside baking directions and essential construction notes, this modern guide to the traditional holiday craft of creating gingerbread houses has projects for bakers of all levels, from novice to advanced.

For each house, Matheson and Chattman provide historical context and descriptions of prominent architectural features, demonstrating how to execute those characteristics in gingerbread and candy. Detailed instructions cover everything from baking and assembling the walls to piping icing and landscaping the yard. And to help match gingerbread houses to bakers–and their little helpers–each house has a difficulty rating, ranging from one gingerbread man to four.

With full-color photographs of the finished houses, tips on the construction schedule, baking and candy resource guides, a glossary of architectural terms, and instructions for lighting the houses from within, The Gingerbread Architect is the complete guide to the ultimate family holiday baking project–for anyone with a keen eye and a sweet tooth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Art, Adult, Holiday

144 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2008

Reviews

[Sara]

This book is so cool! Thinking about making a gingerbread house but don't want to churn out some sticky, overdone thing that should have an evil witch living inside it? Check this out.

The book is divided into 2 sections. The front section is high gloss detailed color photos of the different houses and their landscapes, basic instructions and modification suggestions, as well as historical reference info.

The back section is all the blueprints, printed on standard paper so that they can be enlarged on a copier without risking gloss reflection or any of that nonsense.

I'm not trying to tell you that these are all easy. Many of the blueprints are very complicated. There are several houses here that will make great beginner projects, though, and a couple which will be fun for very experienced builders.

This book is great as a holiday coffee table book, if nothing else. People can't help but pick it up and marvel at it.

[Kristi]

This is a great book for a beginning - intermediate gingerbread house builder. I really enjoyed looking at the different styles of architecture. The recipes would also be helpful. I was surprised to not see any iconic architecture examples (famous architectural pieces). I was also surprised not to see any examples or instructions on curved walls or towers.

This book contains blueprints, step-by-step instructions for the following houses:
Pueblo
Cape Cod
Dawson City House
Carpenter Gothic
Greek Revival Antebellum Plantation
Victorian Farmhouse
Second Empire House
Adirondack Camp
Urban Brownstone
Tudor Revival
South Beach Art Deco House
Modern House

[Stella]

Wow! to some of these 12 architecturally accurate gingerbread houses. Fun to look at, might use some of the decorating ideas. Not sure I'll actually attempt a full house, at least not with the details done here...shingles, tiles, shutters, doorknobs, etc. But Rice Krispie Treat trees (page 44) I can handle.

[Abbey]

This is a very helpful book full of helful suggestions and house plans.

[Alyssa]

I aspire to this level of badass.

[Susie]

I love this!

[Jessie]

Research book for this year's Pittock Mansion Christmas decorations.

[Wendy]

I'm in the thick of making my first gingerbread house from scratch, and I'm in way above my head, but this book is a lifesaver. I've read it through a few times now. The authors are an architect and a baker, so they don't miss a detail. Very simple and plain instructions for very elaborate houses. Good solid recipes too.

[A]

Have you ever wanted to make a more than ordinary Gingerbread House - well this is the book for you. However, plan on spending some good quality time sitting down to plan out your house. The back of the book comes with literal architect plans to create the walls, roofs, porches, etc. for each home. The book includes 12 classic American homes. So cool! NOT for kids - way too complicated.

[Alexandria Hiam]

Have you ever wanted to make a more than ordinary Gingerbread House - well this is the book for you. However, plan on spending some good quality time sitting down to plan out your house. The back of the book comes with literal architect plans to create the walls, roofs, porches, etc. for each home. The book includes 12 classic American homes. So cool! NOT for kids - way too complicated.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

A truly great instruction guide to a very specific baking project - the blueprints were the best part, and I made my first gingerbread house ever - it just happened to be an antebellum mansion instead of a simple square that most people might try. This book helped me be fearless.

[Amy]

My frustrated inner architect definitely was at play when I picked this book up. The book is beautify photographed and the directions are clear and helpful. Matheson does a good job giving you ideas and getting you excited to try some new things.

[Barb]

Lots of information on building gingerbread houses combined with trivia about architectural styles. The recipes, blueprints and instructions for building the houses are very clear.