The Sugar & Spice bakery in the Indiana Memorial Union is not just baking cookies to spice up the holiday season but rather taking their gingerbread to new heights.
Made by the hands at Sugar & Spice, a giant gingerbread house is showcased in the middle of the Biddle Hotel lobby to share a bit of the bakery’s holiday cheer with the public and get them involved.
Last year was Ashley Baughman’s first year as a pastry chef for Sugar & Spice, and it was through her that the tradition took flight.
“We decided it was a project we could get the community around and would get everyone in the holiday spirit,” Baughman said.
Baughman said the process for this year’s display started in the beginning of October when she came up with a design for the house and began to plan out the candy, the dimensions, and the hours to work on it. However, this one was set out to be even better than last year’s original.
“This year we decided to do two,” Baughman said. “We decided to make it a project — how can we go bigger?”
Displayed in the Tudor Room two levels up lies the accompanying gingerbread village elaborately displaying six houses, a church and tiny people, all made of edible ingredients.
Construction on the project began Nov. 3 and lasted seven days. From the hours of 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day, Baughman and her six crew members worked to make the design come to life.
Baughman said she really enjoyed getting to communicate with the people this year while the project was taking shape, which was possible because they worked on the project at its current locations.
“Last year there was less excitement because we did the whole thing in the back,” Baughman said.
However, Baughman said, the displays are not the only things that she and her crew have been working on lately.
“There are currently 150 gingerbread houses being built in the back,” Baughman said.
During the Gingerbread Workshop, children from the community can join in on the creativity and decorate one of the 150 gingerbread houses the bakery constructed for the event, allowing them to take home their own smaller versions of the current displays.
Both the giant gingerbread house and the gingerbread village will be displayed in the IMU until Jan. 1, 2017, leaving plenty of time for people to pay them a visit.
