Ginger Bread Computer

[_rubik]

A few friends of mine entered a ginger bread competition and took home second place with their ginger bread 'computer'. I thought you all would appreciate this.

[tp4tissue]

2017, Dudes making gingerbread houses..  We've come a long way.


Is that suppose to be watercooled ?

[Findecanor]

I think that is supposed to resemble circuit boards and wires.

... and I suppose that the competition was not about baking a gingerbread thing, but to decorate a house that someone had already made them. Otherwise, you could have got way more creative.

I bake gingerbread houses for some Christmases. I once baked a gingerbread Snowspeeder from Star Wars - ESB.

[_rubik]

I think that is supposed to resemble circuit boards and wires.

... and I suppose that the competition was not about baking a gingerbread thing, but to decorate a house that someone had already made them. Otherwise, you could have got way more creative.

You are very correct. This was not at all a test in baking gingerbread, but decorating instead.

[invariance]

A gingeputer!  Mmmmmm tasty.

[tp4tissue]

I've had gingerbread.. although it didn't taste much like ginger..

[Findecanor]

In many other European languages, the word for gingerbread translates literally to "pepper cookie" but it does not contain pepper either. In older times they were made primarily for medicine, and contained a higher amount of various spices and no sugar.

The usual recipes nowadays contain ginger but often also equal amounts of ground clove and cinnamon. Common is also cardamon, Seville orange zest (dried and ground, not pieces) and sometimes nutmeg or mace.
About the same combination of spices are in mulled wine and in British "mincemeat pie" (+allspice, with fruits but no meat!).

Besides the common crispy cookies, there are some thicker, softer varieties.
The German "lebkuchen" (often connected to Nuremberg) has nuts and pieces of orange zest and can also come in various flavours, like chocolate, apple or cherry. For the past years, I have bought some of these for Christmas as well. I have even tried baking them but not succeeded well.