Rat Tail...The Nemesis

All the great ones have a nemesis... Superman, Batman, Liz Lemon... And US!
Before our very first competition, we were understandably nervous. We weren't sure what caliber of competitor we were up against. Upon arriving and dropping our MASTERPIECE off, we were able to scope out the competition a bit more and were instantly relieved. It's not that the other houses were bad... they were adorable, they were charming, they were cute. But not a'one of them had the detail, the intricacies, the magic that ours had. We assumed we were a "shoe in"... we assumed wrong.

While we placed 2nd in our very first competition, the piece that won 1st place was, how shall I say... underwhelming? The theme of the competition was "Winter Wonderland".  *WE* created a gorgeous, sparkling, sugary palace, compete with a covered bridge and a horse-drawn carriage. We named it "The Lustre of Mid-day on Objects Below". Rat Tail's submission was called "Alice in Winter Wonderland", a name that the judges found terribly clever. There were some impressive elements, a molded caterpillar with a hooka pipe on a mushroom, for example. But overall, it was sloppy, it was poorly executed... it was just ok.

The creator of said house was a young man who's name we never actually caught, but his one distinguishing characteristic was a 14"long rat tail. Yes. A rat tail. We were both thrilled at placing but baffled as to WHY we came in behind this less than spectacular submission.

Flash forward, one year. We are ready to submit our second piece to the same competition, certain that this year we NAILED IT. We had detail, we had whimsy, we had realism, we had molded marzipan for cryin' out loud!!!

We dropped off our piece and went to grab some breakfast and who do we see at the charming breakfast cafe we stopped in???? RAT TAIL!! Our old nemesis had RETURNED!
Thankfully, we received 1st place that year... But it didn't remove the sting of having come in behind something that looked like a terrible 6th grade diorama.

Next week takes us back to our usual competition, which of course, we are certain we're going to win. But in the back of all of our minds... we all wonder, will Rat Tail return to give us a run for our money???

First is the Worst, Second is the Best

and second place is what our 2011 castle received at our local gingerbread competition.  The theme for the year was "Winter Wonderland".  We went with the wonder theme and created a castle.  Lots of silver, lots of shiny, and titled the piece "The Luster of Midday on Objects Below."

We were beat out by an "Alice in Winter Wonderland" clever creation.  It was sloppy, but had good sugar work.  (Erin can talk more about our competitor later.) :-)

Keep in mind how clever the judges thought the play on the theme was.  This will come in VERY handy when we reveal our 2013 entry...

This year was the first year we covered our gingerbread in anything.  We covered it in icing, then dusted it with pulverized blue sprinkles and sugar.

We also lined everything with icing stars.  Pretty pretty.  Stylized and Whimsical are our two favorite words.







This was a rainy and muggy year.  We had to wait a LONG time for the icing to dry.  We also melted (I think jolly ranchers) for the windows.  This was different.  By the time of the competition, they had melted off.  Note to self: stick to clear peppermint candy or butterscotch. 

This was also the first time we really used fondant.  Erin hates the taste, so we (Megan) made a yummy marshmallow fondant, which we used to cover round rice krispy treat towers.  (We hadn't quite mastered round baking gingerbread yet.)

Turrets are clearly ice cream cones sprayed with Chef Duff's edible silver spray.

As the icing queen (NOT ice queen) I added little candles.




We melted jolly ranchers again and some clear peppermint (sugar free, oddly enough) candy in aluminum foil to make our lake.  Over that, we built our sweet covered bridge.  This is the same bridge from our Greedo house, and we just loved it so much!  I would expect to see it appear again and again in our pieces.

The roof snowflakes are a German candy.  Their texture is something like Jesus wafers in church.  Always keep your eyes open for new and creative treats!


The tree is rice krispy treats covered in that pulverized sugar and silver spray.  I really like the look of it.

 

We also made a different tree, just so show how creative we could be. :-)

We decided to make the horses 2-D and curved warm gingerbread straight from the oven to form the carriage.

Megan's talent molded us an adorable snowman from Marzipan.  He, too, started to melt from humidity by the time of the competition, but we held it together.

Placing second in our first competition is definitely something we're proud of.  I can't wait to try a more detailed castle plan!
I love our Gingerbuilder Team!