The Magic of Gingerbread

Starred review from December 1, 2016

Canadian baker Beddall's debut collects 16 whimsical gingerbread projects, including a classic candy house, a cookie-filled toy box, a futuristic rocket, and a lifelike edible chess set. These projects are simpler and easier to construct than the stunners in Kristine Samuell's A Year of Gingerbread Houses, but they're no less arresting. Following clear instructions for working with doughs, icings, templates, and other essential materials and tools, home bakers will learn the fundamental skills they'll need to both replicate Beddall's designs and create their own masterpieces. Readers can use this book for most major holidays and special occasions--not just Christmas. Notably, this volume covers decorating with rolled fondant, a topic often overlooked in similar titles. VERDICT Essential for aspiring gingerbread architects.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2016
Four walls and a roof make a gingerbread house. But once bakers open Beddall's well-photographed instructional book, that plain notion of gingerbread's use literally flies out the window. Using her graphic-design skills and baking prowess, she concocts more than a dozen objects to fashion, ranging from cookie puzzles to a very elaborate robot and show house. No worries, since her introductory chapters set up bakers for success, starting with tools and materials (most of which can be found in home kitchens) and providing book, chapter, and verse on the intricacies of working with gingerbread, royal icing (the glue for all the projects), and fondant, or decorative sugar dough. She details tips and tricks that will enable novices to master the use of piping tools and step-by-step photographic directions that cover flooding (thinning the royal icing so it spreads evenly over a gingerbread shape), among others. All projects are elegantly crafted and simple in design yet impactful when completed: holiday place cards, two-inch-tall tree ornaments, a toy box any child would delight in receiving, and a haunted house that's not too frightening. Proof indeed that gingerbread is for more than Christmas.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)