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Culinary Students Create Gingerbread House

By November 20, 2008January 18th, 2019No Comments

Bakery students prepare the edible promo for local garden and home center

A request from a local business to the Culinary Arts department at Kirkwood Community College turned into an enlightening learning opportunity. Culver’s Garden Center in Marion contacted Kirkwood Bakery Instructor Marjorie Jensen in late October, requesting a commissioned gingerbread house to decorate their retail store for the 2008 holiday season. For the veteran baking businesswoman turned educator, It was “a natural” to pursue.

“I love the craft and potential for learning in building these gingerbread houses. It takes me back to our days at International Pastries, when we took on these projects from time to time. The students really embraced it and we had a great time learning together,” Jensen recalls. “We have four students in our Bakery internship this fall and all of them got to put plenty of hours into this one.”

Observers of the finished house will see some artistic license at work, as is often the case in the traditional gingerbread house creations. In addition to assembled slabs of gingerbread to form the walls and roof, the house is actually a “duplex” with a Culver’s store on left side and a Kirkwood Bakery storefront on the right. Frosted shredded wheat mini-biscuits are shingles on the roof, while Cheerios cereal pieces form the “doughnuts” in the bakery window. Peppermint, cinnamon and other candies also form key elements of the 20-pound or so final creation.

Marjorie Jensen and her husband, Glenn Jensen owned and operated the International Pastries store in Lindale Mall for about 15 years in the 1970s to mid-‘90s. The two both returned to their educational roots several years ago, teaching culinary and math classes, respectively.

Jensen estimates the gingerbread house assembly took close to 40 student and instructor hours to complete. The final project was carefully…very carefully…delivered to the Culver’s store on Highway 151 east of Marion on Friday afternoon, November 14.

“We just love these kinds of requests. It starts as a challenge and becomes a fun way to teach good techniques for our students. Who knows what the next one will be?” Jensen added.

The students were so inspired by the project that they plan a couple more gingerbread houses for the college’s mid-December holiday reception.