Kim Cook
That\u2019s because the fourth annual Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bakeoff is all set up at the Museum of the City of New York on the city\u2019s Upper East Side. On view till January 19, 2026, the exhibition features the imaginative creations of twenty-one bakers and artists who\u2019ve built a pint-size metropolis out of gingerbread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The show\u2019s edible landmarks \u2014 this year including everything from a Broadway marquee to a wastewater treatment plant \u2014 capture the city\u2019s imagination in sugar and spice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I went for a sneak peek just before the exhibition opened this year. The first thing you notice stepping off the elevator, is the homey aroma of all that gingery goodness wafting down the hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Museum sets up the displays in a dramatically-lit space, with snowflake projections dancing on the walls, and seats and tables set up in corners for those who\u2019d like to participate in the scavenger hunt offered; written questions help visitors (ages 5-12 are recommended, but adults would have fun, too) find six features among the displays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are also magnetic tiles, if you want to try your hand at assembling a structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first thought beyond \u2018wow, it smells great\u2019 was, how do the bakers, artists and builders handle Installation Day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Museum\u2019s COO Jerry Gallagher had the scoop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBakers take a range of approaches to getting their creations into the Museum. Some participants arrive with their structures fully assembled, carefully transporting them from their kitchens straight into the gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others treat installation day like a live build; they bring their components in pieces and spend several hours\u2014sometimes across more than one day\u2014assembling, piping, attaching details, and securing everything on-site. It makes for an exciting mix; on any given installation day, you\u2019ll see everything from quick drop-offs to bakers hunched over their tables putting on the final flourishes of icing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Creativity, community pride, and edible design are all part of the action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elizabeth Bellotti of Invictus Bakery created a charming row of Brooklyn brownstones, seen over four seasons, with window boxes, stoops and urban gardens filled with sugary trees, flowers and pumpkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Karen Chin, who runs her baking business Just Add Kare up in Queens, says a 50 lb bag of flour gifted to her by her husband was the spark for her baking journey. She\u2019s created a gingerbread version of the iconic Westside Tennis Club, where the first iteration of the US Open was played in the early 1900s, in Forest Hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New York\u2019s Cesar Aldrete, and Ricky Rotandi, a chef\/food stylist and preschool teacher respectively, won Season 36 of CBS\u2019s The Amazing Race. Clearly over-achievers, they\u2019ve created an impressive gingerbread Statue of Liberty that\u2019s won one of this year\u2019s Best Borough Spirit awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Filiz Cihan Cemberci\u2019s crafted some remarkable edible stonework for his Conference House; the 17th<\/sup> century building\u2019s on Staten Island, and was the site of an historic meeting between British officials and Founding Fathers, including Ben Franklin and John Adams, aimed at ending the Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Juliet Galea\u2019s a teacher and mentor for those in or interested in the sugar profession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She won three awards for her creation, \u201cCawfee and a bagel\u201d, featuring a big stuffed bagel and that Greek Anthora blue paper coffee cup that\u2019s become a city icon. \u201cFor many artists this is a dream come true,\u201d she says, \u201cbut for someone who \u2018bakes cakes\u2019? It\u2019s truly magical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other whimsical, wonderful pieces to explore include the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s cottage in the Bronx, the Hotel Chelsea, Brooklyn Bridge, and the Chrysler Building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I asked Gallagher about the exhibition\u2019s inclusion of structures beyond the traditional gingerbread house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLast year a baker created a \u2018NYC-style\u2019 Pizza Box, which was the first time we had a design go beyond the more traditional structure. This year\u2019s we\u2019ve got three \u2013 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Cawfee and a bagel, and Rockettes\u2019 Costume. These are symbols or stories of NY you\u2019d find walking the city streets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most unusual just might be Kate Sigrist\u2019s Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant; not the kind of city landmark you\u2019d think of first when you were deciding what to make out of gingerbread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gallagher loves its uniqueness, but says the whole collection are his favorites for different reasons \u2013 the attention to detail; the thoughtful designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And he\u2019s impressed with the time each takes to create. \u201cSome smaller designs may take 20-30 hours of planning and construction, while the most elaborate entries can require well over 100 hours from concept to completion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not to mention the hundreds of pounds of gingerbread, icing and candy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt all reflects the extraordinary creativity and effort the bakers bring to the competition annually.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ___<\/p>\n\n\n\n New York-based writer Kim Cook covers design and d\u00e9cor topics regularly. Follow her on Instagram at @kimcookhome.<\/p>\n\n\n\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kim Cook That\u2019s because the fourth annual Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bakeoff is all set up at the Museum of the City of New York on the city\u2019s Upper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2241,2237,2243,2238,2236,2244,2240,2239,2245,2235,2242],"class_list":["post-4064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-decor","tag-cesar-aldrete-rick-rotandi","tag-elizabeth-bellotti","tag-filiz-cihan-cemberci","tag-invictus-bakery","tag-jerry-gallagher","tag-juliet-galea","tag-just-add-kare","tag-karen-chin","tag-kate-sigrist","tag-museum-of-the-city-of-new-york","tag-the-amazing-race"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimcookhome.com\/kchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimcookhome.com\/kchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimcookhome.com\/kchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimcookhome.com\/kchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimcookhome.com\/kchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4064"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kimcookhome.com\/kchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4076,"href":"https:\/\/kimcookhome.com\/kchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064\/revisions\/4076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimcookhome.com\/kchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimcookhome.com\/kchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimcookhome.com\/kchblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}