Just in case you hadn’t heard, now that Halloween is over, it’s Christmas. At least, it is in the Kitchen House, for this week. The last few weeks in November and the first weeks in December are looking very busy in terms of field trips, camps, and of course, curriculum creation. However, before the busy season starts, I got to do a little something different and something more aligned with my culinary skillset: I got to help decorate a giant gingerbread version of the Kitchen House!

Every year, the Orlando Museum of Art celebrates the holiday season with an event in mid-November called the Festival of Trees. The event lasts about a week, and includes holiday pop-ups, Breakfast with Santa, and more. One of the best parts of the festival, is the gingerbread house competition. This year, for the first time ever, the Edible Education Experience is participating in the competition with a gingerbread version of the Kitchen House! I was so excited a few weeks ago when Megan asked me if I wanted to come help decorate the house.

When I arrived at the Kitchen House on Thursday, it was Megan, and Mahogany an amazing baker who works at Disney World, and me. They had done a lot of the construction of the house the day before, putting up the walls and making sure it was structurally sound and prepared for the roof and the decorations.

We got going on rolling out modeling chocolate, tinting buttercream, and reinforcing all of the roof tiles with tempered chocolate. I also used a little modeling chocolate to make a quick snowman version of Brad Jones, our Garden Educator, to go with a super cute tiny version of his hat that Megan had made.

The entire process was an adrenaline ridden 3-4 hours but we managed to complete the decorations on the house, and I love how it turned out. Peppermint accents, fondant topiary bushes and candy cane swirls, classic buttercream garlands, sprinkles, and tons of glitter. The entire house is 100% edible and it looks gorgeous!

This was such a fun break, that I think I needed, as much as I love education, I also love baking. This was a great experience that reminded me that while internships are mostly work, there are so many wonderful and fun moments that being part of a staff like the one at the Kitchen House lets you experience. If you’re looking for something to do between November 11-19^th to start the holiday season, I highly suggest you check out our gingerbread house over at the Orlando Museum of Art. (Apparently you can get a raffle ticket or bid to even take the gingerbread house home… but I don’t know how that works.)