Gingerbread refers to a
broad category of baked goods
, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a soft, moist loaf cake to something close to a ginger snap.
What gingerbread means?
1 :
a cake whose ingredients include molasses and ginger
. 2 [from the fancy shapes and gilding formerly often applied to gingerbread] : lavish or superfluous ornament especially in architecture.
What is Gingerbreading on a house?
The term “Gingerbread” refers to
exterior decoration — sawn or carved
— that is seen in many Victorian styles. On porches, it is characterized by spindle work and turned posts and on rooflines by bargeboards. Gingerbread House History.
What is gingerbread made of?
Gingerbread is a baked sweet containing
ginger and sometimes cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom and anise
, and sweetened with any combination of brown sugar, molasses, light or dark corn syrup, or honey.
What style is a gingerbread house?
Gingerbread is an architectural style that consists of elaborately detailed embellishment known as gingerbread trim. It is more specifically used to describe the detailed decorative work of American designers in the late 1860s and 1870s, which was associated mostly to the
Carpenter Gothic style
.
Are you supposed to eat your gingerbread house?
Yes,
gingerbread houses are supposed to be edible
. They are made from edible parts, like the gingerbread itself, the icing, the candy.
Why is gingerbread a Christmas tradition?
Gingerbread was also worn as a talisman in battle or as protection against evil spirits. … After this book was published,
German bakers began baking ornamented fairy-tale houses of lebkuchen
(gingerbread). These became popular during Christmas, a tradition that came to America with Pennsylvanian German immigrants.
What type of word is gingerbread?
a
type of cake flavored with ginger and molasses
. a rolled cookie similarly flavored, often cut in fanciful shapes, and sometimes frosted.
Where did the word gingerbread come from?
In medieval England, it referred to any kind of preserved ginger (borrowing from the Old French term gingebras, which in turn came from the spice’s Latin name, zingebar.) The term became associated with
ginger-flavored cakes sometime in the 15th century
.
What does gingerbread mean in architecture?
Gingerbread, in architecture and design,
elaborately detailed embellishment, either lavish or superfluous
. Although the term is occasionally applied to highly detailed and decorative styles, it is more often applied specifically to the work of American designers of the late 1860s and ’70s.
What country is famous for gingerbread?
Gingerbread houses originated in
Germany
during the 16th century. The elaborate cookie-walled houses, decorated with foil in addition to gold leaf, became associated with Christmas tradition.
Does gingerbread taste good?
It
tastes great fresh from the oven
. It is not too gingery, but a nice mellow combination of spices. Most of the flavor comes from the molasses and the dark brown sugar. This is also a stable cookie that only gets stronger as it cools and sits out.
Why is gingerbread so good?
Ginger used to be
a universally loved flavor in cooking
, partly because people didn’t make sweets unless they could afford white sugar and the less-expensive molasses. So, if you were going to the trouble and expense of baking something sweet, you could probably buy ginger or cinnamon as well.
What is Victorian fretwork?
Victorian decoration – gingerbread ornamentation and fretwork are
features that make people stop and admire a house
. It is these features that give a house that extra charm and character. The more ornamentation the better sometimes making the Victorian building look like it was on steroids. … This is a Clown House.
What are the characteristics of a gingerbread house?
Characteristics of gingerbread houses include
pitched roofs, overhanging eaves, projecting square bays, open stickwork verandas, and emphasis on angular as well as vertical elements of the home
.
Why is the Stick style said to be truthful architecture?
Stick style architects wanted
to express “truthfulness” in the structures by revealing the supporting posts and beams
. … These boards symbolized the hidden structural frame. Additional “sticks” were nailed across the gable peak and along the porch.
