Gingerbread Houses - Prague Style

I love Christmas and all the traditions that accompany Christmas. So when our friend A asked if we would be excited about building and decorating a gingerbread house for Christmas, the obvious answer was, "Yes!" Since we are in Prague with some of America's best and brightest scholars (i.e. the Fulbrights), we decided to ask a few of them to help us in our quest for Christmas fun. Thus spawned the weekend of building the "best gingerbread house ever"...

When A and I decided to organize gingerbread house making, we enlisted two architects, E and Z, to come up with a plan. I have to admit, A and I put a lot of pressure on E and Z to design a "really cool" structure. And because they are good sports, and were willing to humor us, they produced plans for the most amazing gingerbread house ever built: a replica of a church in Namesti Jiriho Z Pojebradeho in Prague, the Church of the Most Sacred Heart of our Lord (Kostel Nejsvětějšího Srdce Páně na náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad). (Note: E also spent 16 hours designing a Gothic tower turned helmet to wear during Halloween, so he didn't need that much convincing...)

I can't really put into words how incredible the plans were for this Czech gingerbread church. There were computer renderings, measurements to scale of the building, a trial run earlier in the week to estimate the length, width, and height of the gingerbread, and at least 50+ individual pieces of gingerbread cut and baked. Did I mention the plans for a Cubist lamppost that involved 72 individual pieces of gingerbread? Sorry Z, that was the one thing we had to 86...but there's always next year! I'm convinced that E and Z really don't understand how amazing, incredible, and over-the-top their efforts were in this architectural extravaganza. They are both incredibly smart, unique, and innovative individuals who humored A and me by lending their talents to the gingerbread house extravaganza like they had just been commissioned to design the new National Library in Prague. Of course, if we had wanted the library, we could have just chucked a bunch of dough in the oven and covered it with green sprinkles and some purple Jolly Ranchers. (By the way, I'd much rather have them design a new library than see what is planned right now get built, but I digress...)

What ensued was the coolest, best-est, most awesome gingerbread cathedral ever constructed.

Highlights included:
7 hours of baking on Friday night
6 hours of construction on Saturday night
2 Jon Dong inspired play lists full of Bell Biv DeVoe and the Crue
30 cups of powdered sugar + 18 egg whites to make the icing/cement that held the gingerbread together
A stained glass window made of crushed and baked hard candy (in place of the clock that more accurately should be in there)
Svarene vino (mulled wine) to fortify our Christmas spirit - this is totally coming back with us for the Xmas holidays, so be prepared for some Czech goodness.

A, I love friends who also think building a gingerbread church is the most fun ever. E and Z, I love architects with a sense of humor.

I love Christmas in Prague.