The holidays are a time for sweet and festive treats. Traditionally, a frosted gingerbread house adorned with a merry mix of gumdrops marks the season, but culinary artist Melodie Dreardon takes it to a whole other level. With the help of her friend Brenton, Dreardon has replicated Frank Lloyd Wright's famous architectural accomplishment known as Fallingwater.
The time-consuming process, which involved 12 hours to design the piece and an additional 40 hours to actually construct and decorate the gingerbread house, has resulted in one astounding piece of culinary mastery. More than a simple house, the architectural design for the baked good reflects a great deal of stability. The complicated structure requires an intricately planned balancing act atop a waterfall of frosting.
Using 164 different pieces of gingerbread, 3 batches of hard candy, 12 square feet of gingerbread dough, 8 bags of sugar for the frosting, and over 40 sleeves of Smarties to make the dry stack stone, Dreardon was able to assemble the meticulous piece brilliantly. The recipe and steps behind her precise process can be found on her blog, Garden Melodies.
