Gingerbread houses taken to the next level

Heba Guðrún Niel­sen does not make the ordinary gingerbread houses to celebrate Christmas. She decided to make this holiday tradition an architectural feat in baking and decided to make the ginger bread Eiffel tower, the most impressive one that we have seen here in Iceland. The Eif­fel tower is the iconic landmark of Paris, France and she had so much fun doing it that she decided to add another gingerbread creation this year. She topped herself and made the Tower Bridge in London from gingerbread with a magnificent and detailed finishes.

Designed and made both gingerbread buildings from scratch

It is truly spectacular to see her masterpiece alongside the first Eiffel tower, which she made and now both creations are a centerpiece in her holiday themed home. Nielsen says that Christmas can come now, as her Christmas “village” is ready. It goes without saying that Nielsen clearly has some artistic talent as can be seen in both gingerbread creations. She designed and cut forms for the gingerbread dough for baking and then put everything together and decorated.

Nielsen shows the readers how the Tower Bridge was created, step by step.

“My plan for this year was always to make two gingerbread houses. When I finished the Eiffel tower I started with the new one, which is based on the Tower Bridge in London. I start just like I started with the Eiffel Tower by designing the shapes and then cutting all the forms out of a cardboard.”

“I had to make sure that the bridge would fit next to the tower. Then I cut out the shapes on the bridge on the cardboard. Cutting out the bridge was much simpler because there are a lot fewer pieces.”

“I had to plan this very carefully, how to bring the decorative lights into the structures and had to make sure to factor that in when I was making the shapes. Then I started to bake the bridge. I used the gingerbread dough from Ikea, It’s both cheap and very simple to use. Then I just baked all the pieces. It took me a while to do this because there are so many small pieces in this structure.”

“Sometimes it can be difficult to reach a very straight line when you’ve baked the dough, but I think it’s best to put it in the freezer overnight before I cut the pieces and bake them. If something comes out a little wider than it should, I use a sharp knife and scrape the sides down. I then decorated all the sides and I wanted to make bricks on the bridge and tried my best and did it with frosting.”

“I then put the tower together with my mother’s help and it took me a whole couple of days to put all of it together,” she says smiling.

“I then decorated the tower with frosting on all sides and then put a small bow on the edge to make it in the style of the Eifell tower I had made.”

“I then made a small fence out of frosting. I make the fences as I want them on baking paper and let them dry overnight, then use a spatula to get them off the paper and then attach them to the house with frosting,” says Nielsen, adding that this year’s Christmas village is finally ready.