Delicious Design: BOCES Students Build Gingerbread Houses
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David Caccamise, culinary instructor at the LoGuidice Center, tells his students that success in culinary arts requires three character traits -- creativity, imagination and patience. The yearly gingerbread house competition encourages all three.
The students began working on their creations in early December. First they created a cardboard template, so they could see exactly how the pieces fit together in three dimensions. Then they disassembled the template to use the flat walls as a pattern on the gingerbread. It's a lesson in geometry made practical.
"The students flour the cardboard pieces, place each on dough rolled out to about a quarter inch and cut around the patterns. After a day or two, the pieces are attached with royal icing, an edible substance that acts like glue," Caccamise said.
Each student gets his or her own squeeze bottle of the frosting and it's kept on hand in case there is a repair needed.
Juniors in the program must work together. "That's like the real world," he said. "You might get assigned to work with someone, and you have to get along."
Seniors can choose to work together or separately. Seniors Chris Houghton and Anthony Cusimano worked as a team to create a representation of Big Ben.
"There are a lot of compromises that have to be made when working together," said Cusimano.
Cousins Sarah Okerlund and Cameron Mitchell of Westfield wanted to create a more traditional house with lots of Christmas touches.
Okerlund, who someday would like to own her own bakery, said she learned some of what she did in class and came up with other ideas with her cousin. A walkway that looked like beach glass was actually a candy created by melting and coloring sugar, spreading it on a sheet, and then smashing the candy into chunks. Sweet tarts were used to edge the windows. The evergreen trees in the scene were actually ice cream cones inverted and decorated.
Danyshka Molina-Ruiz and Cheryl Hall planned a lighthouse which actually had a light in the top. Multi-colored "rock candy" was used to create a cobblestone effect.
The gingerbread church created by juniors Lauren Quagliana and Dante Ortiz displayed delicate and intricate decoration in plain white icing.
Parents, staff, faculty, and students, were allowed to vote. Houses were identified by numbers and coded red for junior entries and green for senior entries. Staff in the main office counted the votes and reported the results to Caccamise.
For juniors, first place went to Lauren Quagliana of Westfield and Dante Ortiz of Pine Valley for their church. Brooke Riedel and Victoria Schultz of Gowanda received second, and Sarah Carpenter and Matt Cadell of Pine Valley received third.
For the seniors, Cheryl Hall from Cassadaga Valley Central School and Danyshka Molina-Ruiz of Silver Creek received first place for their lighthouse. Andrew Conti of Fredonia placed second and Sarah Okerlund and Cameron Mitchell of Westfield received third place.
Though the houses looked good enough to eat, several students said eating them was not a good idea since they got hard and stale over the course of three weeks. However, no one was tempted since punch and Christmas cookies were served during voting hours.
Rosemary Catalano, the teaching assistant in the class, made many of the cookies which included a variety of traditional Italian cookies, including ricotta cookies, Italian chocolate cookies, pizzelles and cucidati, the well-known Italian fig cookies.