Christmas Chapel

Dec 13, 2019 | Baking, Process

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night

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windows

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This was my most ambitious, and largest project yet.

|I started, like I often do, with a design. This one, I happened to pick a model that was already completed. I take measurements of the building in SketchUp and then translate that into foam board so I can get a sense for how it will fit together. The foam board helps simulate the thickness of gingerbread (it’s actually quite close). I used to use cardboard to prototype, but the thin nature of the cardboard caused fitting issues.

I sculpted some window and door treatments with polymer clay and then tried to mold them for casting in chocolate. The casting didn’t turn out so well, as the window pieces were too long and thin, so I ended up using fondant instead.

It has been a while since I’ve done stained glass, and I’m glad I had another chance to. I have a silicone baking mat that has a nice diamond shape that makes the windows look great, especially on a building like this.

the steeple was exceptionally difficult to get fitted. the whole tower itself was not exactly as I would have wanted – I should have been more careful to monitor the thickness of the pieces. It didn’t make a pefect shape, so I had issues with teh steeple later on. I had a gingerbread structure, but adding fondant would have made it too thick, so I used wafer paper on top. It ended up curling from moisture, so I had to glue it down with some royal icing.

I used marshmallow peantu butter ‘squares’ for the stone fence, using white instead of darker chocolate.

This is the first time I used a light that wasn’t inside of the building. I cut a groove in the board below so I could run lights out to the chocolate tree.

The tree was something new too. I did a wire form under neath it and then covered in modelling chocolate.