Wednesday, December 20, 2000
|
Wednesday, December 20, 2000 |
| Traditon
of gingerbread house creations continues at Huddleston Elementary School
By PAT NEWMAN The aroma of freshly baked gingerbread spiked with a hint of peppermint scented the third grade hall at Huddleston Elementary School Friday as students assembled A-frame gingerbread houses, and painting them with snow white icing and silvery sprinkles. Gingerbread construction 101 has become a tradition at Huddleston, and an anticipated activity among lower classmen. First graders in Debbie Warren's class snaked slowly around the desks of the amateur architects in Marcie McDuffie's room, admiring the holiday confections in the works. The third grade "tour of homes" seemed nothing short of spectacular to the young observers, given the pounds of candy scattered on desks. Volunteer moms and dads kept busy whipping up the icing, which served as the mortar for the gingerbread, as the kids spread it carefully with their popsicle-stick trowels. After 90 minutes of mixing, spreading and assembling row upon row of gumdrops, vanilla wafers, pretzels and chocolate blocks, the modest cottages were transformed into millionaire mansions suitable for Candyland's Licorice Lane or the owner's family holiday table. The gingerbread project was initiated in the late 1980s by Sandra Martin, a third grade teacher at Oak Elementary. Liz Fitch, a Huddleston teacher who worked with Martin, carried the plans with her when she transferred. According to Fitch, baking gingerbread and constructing the houses was something Martin had learned while teaching on post during her husband, Jim's, career in the military. She prompted her new colleagues to introduce it in their classes, and the rest is history. The teachers first discovered Tendick's Bakery in Riverdale could provide the ready-baked gingerbread sheets. "So Jim Martin went over to Riverdale in his red pick-up truck and delivered 100 16X24-inch sheets of gingerbread to the school cafeteria," Fitch said. After cutting the pieces into sections for each child, the teachers arranged them on the classroom desks. "We jacked the heat up to 85 degrees to dry it out and in the morning the gingerbread was like cold toast," she recalled. Little has changed over the years, except the gingerbread source has located closer to school, with owner Jorg Schatte closing Tendick's and opening the City Cafe and Bakery in Fayetteville, and teachers have shortened construction time from more than three hours to just under two, thanks to premixed icing. A near crisis was avoided late Thursday when Fitch discovered the gingerbread slabs had not quite hardened to construction calibre. Quick action on the part of Huddleston's third grade teachers saved the day. The sheets were packed up and transported to school and home ovens for a second toasting; just enough to make the bread firm enough for Friday's fun. The result was another year of creative confections and a happy, sugar-buzzed grade of decorators. |
