A Gingerbread Tribute to Antoni Gaudí

The idea was simple enough—build a gingerbread house for the holidays. Less than a month later, our house transformed into a gingerbread homage to Spanish Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and Casa Batlló, his kaleidoscopic masterpiece in Barcelona, Spain.

Everything about the structure is edible, from the luster on each chimney and spire to the blanket of snow dusting the roof and ground. After creating a blueprint, we used a laser cutter to replicate the organic, serpentine curves of Casa Batlló in gingerbread and to etch the delicate, bonelike details of the balconies in fondant.

Jolly Rancher glass covers each window, created by crushing the candies with a meat cleaver, placing the shards in each window of the gingerbread facade, and then baking it on a Baking Steel, topped with a Silpat, in our bread oven. The radiant heat from the top of the oven melts the Jolly Ranchers without burning the bottom of the gingerbread

Decorative touches were carefully added: tiles made from Jolly Ranchers, prismatic scaled shingles of icing, edible gold luster dust, rice paper snowflakes, and finally, a powdering of tapioca maltodextrin.

We hope you enjoy watching our tribute to Antoni Gaudí come to life. And, above all, wish you a wonderful holiday season.

– The Modernist Cuisine Team