I went on a bit of a holiday adventure the other day without leaving the city, it felt as if I went to the north pole except there was no Santa, there were however a team of bakers. I was fortunate to watch the bakers at work building and decorating the Gingerbread Houses inside Stuarts Bakery.

Christian Cocardon has mastered the construction process as he has been making gingerbread houses for 30 years. Each year at Stuarts Bakery they start making the houses around the beginning of November. They start off baking the gingerbread, then they cut the gingerbread into the pieces to assemble the houses, royal icing is then used to build the houses, starting with the walls and then the roof.

They then pipe in the royal icing decorating the yard, all that white snow and then the decorating begins and it’s quite a lot of fun, well to watch is fun!

I was told the shelf-life from when they are made to when they should be eaten is under 2 months, so if you get one of these as a present, you had better start eating before or shortly after the holidays.

Can be ordered from Stuarts Granville island ($69.99 at this location), Max’s Deli on Oak street, Foodwares Market in Granville skytrain station, and Artisan Bakery in Park Royal.

Go to Part 2 to see where you can purchase one of these beautiful Gingerbread Houses.

By: Richard Wolak