Martha Stewart’s Gingerbread Abbey is just in time for the holidays!
Leave it to the creative brilliance of Martha Stewart to make a bit of holiday greatness out of the most highly-anticipated television series premiere of 2015. Thankfully, that premiere is only 4 days into the new year so there’s not long to wait!
Martha Stewart and her team have created a “Gingerbread Abbey”—a stunning likeness of the Grantham family home made entirely of gingerbread. In anticipation of over-the-top euphoria surrounding the forthcoming January 4, 2015 premiere, Martha is encouraging fans to share their Downton-inspired creations throughout the rest of the holiday season using the hashtag #GingerbreadAbbey.
Martha gets the party started, as usual, with the help of Lesley Nicol, who isn’t a rookie when it comes to knowing her way around the kitchen. Overall, it took Martha and team, led by pastry chef and food stylist Jason Schreiber, 11 batches of dough, 66 cups of flour, 16 cups of royal icing and 34 hours to bake and decorate! In case you’re wondering, the recipe requires several pounds of sugar for the caramel needed for the 65 ‘glass’ windows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISy598gtvBc
As you can probably tell, this isn’t Martha’s first rodeo when it comes to stately gingerbread creations. She created a gingerbread mansion in her first book, Entertaining, and then followed it up with a ‘Snow-Swept Gingerbread Cottage‘ and the somewhat less stately, ‘Gingerbread Town House Cookies‘. Standing 48 inches wide, 11 inches deep, and 28 inches high, Martha’s gingerbread Downton Abbey is quite a monumental task but it’s not one that should only be left to professionals. This is definitely one where the video shouldn’t say “These are professionals. Do not attempt this at home”. If you access your inner-Martha and tackle this during the holidays, we want pictures! And, don’t forget to post with the hashtag #GingerbreadAbbey. Here are the step-by-step instructions below and then a few pics from Martha to to get you started…
Gingerbread Abbey – How To (Step 1 of 4, Rolling, cutting and baking dough)
Gingerbread Abbey – How To (Step 2 of 4, Decorating the gingerbread)
Gingerbread Abbey – How To (Step 3 of 4, Making & Installing the caramel windows)
Gingerbread Abbey – How To (Step 4 of 4, Assembling the Gingerbread Abbey)
In: Drama,Odds & Sods
