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Incredible Edible Experience

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR

cpastor@tampatrib.com

Published: December 10, 2008

CITRUS PARK - Sickles High School culinary students know their gingerbread. They used to compete in gingerbread-decorating contests, and this fall they built haunted houses from the cake to display around their school.

But the teens had not experienced working with an edible house that towered over their heads.

They found out last week what makes a tabletop gingerbread house different from a 7-foot one.

"Everything is bigger," said senior Danielle Boynton, 18. "It's still details, but it's bigger details."
Slabs of gingerbread weighing 500 pounds. Icing from buckets instead of bowls. A team effort to raise the roof. And three days of inhaling vanilla and looking at candy.

The latter part might sound heavenly, but the students became immune quickly.

"We're so sick of gingerbread," Boynton said, laughing.

Gabi Helmer, a senior, said she couldn't smell the vanilla after a few hours of working on the house. But passersby kept telling her how much they wished they could eat it.

The house will stand near the Sears entrance inside Westfield Citrus Park through Dec. 24. Students spent three days at the mall gluing cookies, graham crackers and gingerbread panels with icing to turn a wood-frame structure into a storybook cottage.

Richard Ceglio, Sickles' culinary operations director, said he thought it would be a fun project for his students and a good way for them to practice drawing borders and shapes and creating icing colors. Seniors worked with underclassmen, Ceglio said, giving them a chance to develop teamwork skills.

"Projects like this bring the kids together," Ceglio said.

The group worked on the ground to assemble cookie shingles on a base for the roof, which several boys helped lift to place on the top. Some painted red and blue onto the door to create a toy soldier. Others pressed gumdrops and marshmallows to make designs. A student walked around the house looking for gaps between cookies and graham crackers that he could fill with icing.

"I just tell them to have fun, like they are finger painting like little kids," Ceglio said.

Ceglio took over the worrying about the logistics, such as how to strengthen a giant candy house and how to get enough supplies. Alessi Bakery donated the gingerbread, and three area Sweetbay stores pitched in to provide cookies, candy and icing. School clubs donated money in exchange for a panel with their logo.

Helmer, 17, said it got nerve-wracking for students at times, but she looked forward to returning to the mall to see her handiwork.

"Doing this, it's such a big project, we want to do it perfectly," she said.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503.

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