COURTESY OF ALVONIA BALDWIN
Cydni Baldwin's Girl Scout-themed gingerbread house won third place in the youth category of the Raleigh Area Gingerbread House Competition this year. The house, made entirely of edible materials, features a Girl Scout sash made of fondant and uses Girl Scout cookies as building materials.
Some people build houses out of boards and nails. Cydni Baldwin prefers more flavorful materials.
Like gingerbread that she makes herself. And icing. And, of course, Girl Scout cookies.
Girl Scouting was the theme of Cydni's latest gingerbread house, just in time for the Scouts' 100th anniversary celebration in the coming year. Cydni, a Girl Scout herself, decided to join her love of gingerbread houses and Girl Scouting with her entry in the Raleigh Area Gingerbread House competition, where her green-bedecked house won third place in the youth category.
"I decided to put those two things together because I'm very passionate about Girl Scouts," said Cydni, 13, "and I believe that it was something different. You always see these different gingerbread houses and themes, but I've never seen a Girls Scouts gingerbread house."
Cyndi, who lives in Efland, draped a green Girl Scout sash made from fondant across her house, complete with badges and her own troop number, 1179. There's a plaque honoring Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low and a bonfire in the yard that represents Girl Scout camp traditions of gathering around a fire and singing songs. The house's windows are made from Thin Mints, and Samoas (some call 'em Caramel DeLites) are rocks that dot the yard.
This wasn't her first gingerbread house, and it won't be her last, but she figured now was a good time to pay tribute to the Girl Scouts.
"I knew I would not probably be around for the 200th anniversary," she said, laughing, "so I think it's a good idea to celebrate the 100th anniversary."
So for several weeks, Cydni, an eighth-grader at Gravelly Hill Middle School, worked on her gingerbread house on her family's dining room table (it was an honored guest during the Thanksgiving feast) when she could find time amid schoolwork and extracurricular activities.
As she judged her progress, she was looking with an artist's eyes, but also with a chef's.
A gingerbread house she made for the 2009 National Gingerbread House Competition at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville had a French bistro theme that reflected yet another of Cydni's passions: cooking.
"That's my dream restaurant, which basically I just made into a gingerbread house," said Cydni, who hopes to attend culinary school and already runs a website, cimplycydni.com, aimed at getting kids interested in cooking.
Being able to make your vision into a gingerbread reality, she said, is a big part of the process. She'll look at pictures of buildings and other elements (like the Girl Scout sash) online, "and then just make it into an edible version," she said.
Gingerbread-house building also requires a solid game plan, some creativity ("You can have an awesome-structured gingerbread house, but if you don't have anything that really make it pop, you know ..."), and a whole lot of patience, she said.
"Patience is a big thing," said Cydni. "You have to have patience because anything can go wrong. You can burn your gingerbread, your gingerbread house when you put it together can collapse, you can roll your gingerbread too thin, too thick. There's so many possibilities that can go wrong with working with gingerbread. But that's all about having fun, and that's all about the experience."
Her winning Girl Scout gingerbread house will be on display for a few more weeks (see box), then will likely be saved for display at a rally to kick off Girl Scout cookie season for her troop. But its final destination will somewhat less glamorous.
"I think we'll bring it back here and put it out for the animals," said Cydni's mom, Alvonia Baldwin. "Especially the deer."
