Edible replicas of all boroughs: an unusual exhibition of gingerbread cookies opened in New York

This year, the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is holding a very unusual exhibition, and it looks amazing. Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off will last until January 16th. It includes gingerbread cookies from seven bakers - edible replicas of the five boroughs of New York (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island). Writes about it Hyper Allergic.

“I can tell you from personal experience how difficult it is,” said Jonah Nye, one of the competition judges and a semi-finalist on the reality show Baking. “You can measure anything, but when you put it in an oven, you have no control over how much it shrinks or expands.”

Nye said he especially liked the Sans Bakery miniature of Long Island City, Queens.

“I love small details,” Nye explained.

This project is owned by Erica Fair, who runs a bakery that has been making gluten-free baked goods since 2010. She wanted to represent iconic parts of her neighborhood and decided to recreate the seven-line subway car, the iconic Silvercup film studio, and the graffiti of people crossing the East River from Manhattan.

On the subject: Christmas Paradise: World's largest gingerbread village opens in Manhattan

The baker explained that the weather plays a huge role in the success of the changeable environment: she originally planned to make twice as much, but her original project broke in half during a heatwave in early November. For her final product, Fair used Pez candies as bricks and mixed glitter with vodka (it evaporates faster than water) as paint. She also built several Christmas trees out of gummy bears.

John Kuen represented Manhattan and won the competition's "biggest" prize. He had never made a gingerbread house before, but worked as an architect, and his experience is evident in the final product, a replica of Madison Square Park in Midtown. Kuen's final version, which includes carefully constructed miniatures of the Flatiron Building and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower, began work in early October and said he spent about eight hours a day on the project until it was presented to judges in early November.

“It was difficult,” Kuen said. In his project, he ditched butter and added more flour and spices to get a stronger end product.

According to MCNY COO Jerry Gallagher, the competition and exhibition is a new initiative of the museum, most likely it will become a tradition.

The museum, having assembled an impressive team of judges, sent appeals around the city to both professional bakers and amateurs. In addition to Nigh, the deciding panel included Bobby Lloyd, who runs the Magnolia Bakery; Nadine Orenstein, curator of drawings and prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who is also a judge for the annual National Gingerbread Competition; artist-turned-baker Colette Peters, who designs gourmet cakes at her namesake company, Colette's Cakes, in New Jersey; Melba Wilson, owner of the popular Melba's restaurant in Harlem; Amy Sherber, who led Manhattan's beloved Amy's Bread for 30 years.

Now seven gingerbread cookies — two from Queens, two from Brooklyn, and one each from Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island — are on display at the museum.

“When you walk into a room, it hits you,” Nye said of the characteristic sweet scent. “You can’t really appreciate the work or its scale until you see it up close.”