Gingerbread Houses at the Grove Park Inn 2011

At the Grove Park Inn, holiday decorations have been put in place.  The Christmas trees are up, the wreaths  hung and once again it is time for the Annual Gingerbread House Contest. The winners were announced this past week and all the houses are on display in the public areas of the Inn.  Competition was fierce this year from bakers all across the country and the results are pretty amazing!

Grand Prize Winner Ashley Howard, Winter Springs, FL

To celebrate the winners here is some interesting gingerbread trivia to go along with the pics -

~It is a tradition to wait until New Years Day to eat your gingerbread house.~

~Gingerbread houses decorated bakery shop windows during colonial America's Christmas holiday.~

Second Place Adult Heather Lewis. Austell, GA

~Crusaders brought the spice ginger to Europe from the Middle east in the 11th century.~

Third Place Adult Barbara Evens and Mary Jo Dowling,Edlesten, IL

~The original gingerbread was a rough paste of rosewater, stale bread crumbs, ground almonds, sugar and ginger.  The bread crumbs were replaced by flour and finally int he 17th century molasses was added to the recipe.~

First Place Teen Carly Owens, Swannanoa, NC

First Place Youth Lydia Gentry, Hendersonville, NC

First Place Child Abby Adkins, Kodak, TN

Wishing everyone stateside a wonderful Thanksgiving. See ya next week!

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