Every fall, a sweet event takes place at The Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina: the National Gingerbread House Competition. Participants create amazing gingerbread sculptures. How do the edible structures stay up? The secret is their recipe!
Most baked goods contain leavening agents, like baking powder. These chemicals release gases during baking that make cookies fluffy. To keep the gingerbread dough sturdy, bakers usually don’t include these ingredients. They glue the gingerbread pieces together with icing containing egg whites. They beat the whites, which causes protein molecules to stick together. That makes the icing strong!
Some people spend up to 500 hours on their entries, says Jennifer Wagner, who oversees the event. “It’s an amazing display of creativity and patience.”