{"id":28615,"date":"2025-11-04T20:09:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T20:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/28615\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T20:09:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T20:09:42","slug":"a-massive-gingerbread-competition-is-back-at-museum-of-the-city-of-new-york-with-dozens-of-beautiful-creations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/28615\/","title":{"rendered":"A massive gingerbread competition is back at Museum of the City of New York with dozens of beautiful creations"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can smell it before you see it, the air thickly perfumed with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. And then when you do see it, there\u2019s a moment of cognitive dissonance: How could a giant everything bagel with crispy, toasted onion flakes smell sweet?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because this massive, intricately crafted bagel is actually made of gingerbread as part of Museum of the City of New York\u2019s annual Gingerbread NYC:\u00a0The Great Borough Bake-Off 2025<\/a>.\u00a0More than a dozen bakers across the city crafted their own versions of iconic NYC places, buildings and spirit, with the bagel sculpture taking top prize this year. You can go see all of the gingerbread creations (and vote for your favorite) at the museum in East Harlem<\/a> from November 7 through January 19, 2026.<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED: Christmas in New York: The best things to do for a magical time this holiday season<\/a><\/p>\n

Now in its fourth year, Gingerbread NYC welcomes professional and amateur bakers to design fully edible gingerbread structures. This year\u2019s \u201cIconic New York\u201d theme saw everything from brownstones and\u00a0Broadway to skyscrapers and subways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A
\nPhotograph: By Rossilynne Skena Culgan for Time Out New York <\/p>\n

For Juliet Galea, choosing to create a bagel and a to-go coffee was a natural fit. \u201cNo matter where you\u2019re from in the world, here in the city, we\u2019re all\u00a0connected by a bagel and a coffee. It doesn\u2019t make a difference where you\u2019re from or if you speak English or not,\u201d she tells Time Out.<\/p>\n

To create the design, she had to contend with making her food-inspired structures solid but not over the contest\u2019s weight limit. She made the bagel out of gingerbread, then covered it in a tan-colored fondant, added royal icing as cream cheese and created capers out of fondant. To make the onion flakes, she chopped up coconut flakes and torched them. For the cup of coffee, she stacked discs of gingerbread cookies, then covered those in fondant and hand cut the design. Finally, she used rice paper to make a napkin for her coffee stirrer.<\/p>\n

Galea\u2019s hard work paid off, as she won the contest\u2019s grand prize awarded by an elite panel of judges including Melba Wilson, owner of Melba\u2019s Harlem; Amy Scherber, owner of Amy\u2019s Bread; and Nadine Orenstein, a curator at the Met and former judge of the National Gingerbread House Competition.<\/p>\n

\"A
\nPhotograph: By Rossilynne Skena Culgan for Time Out New York <\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing that I love about this is just like the joy that I get to make it and then the joy of the people who are enjoying it,\u201d Galea says. \u201cThis is like edible poetry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bakers\u00a0C\u00e9sar Aldrete and Ricky Rotandi chose to create the Statue of Liberty<\/a> for their gingerbread creation, as they were drawn to the statue for what she represents. \u201cOn top of that, we decided to make all of these gingerbread people, showing diversity. We wanted whoever comes closer to it and looks at it\u00a0to be like, \u2018oh, that kind of looks like me,\u2019\u201d Aldrete\u00a0tells Time Out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They spent three weeks on the project, beginning with a trip to the Statue of Liberty for research. Then, they made their design out of cardboard for practice. Next, they made 20 pounds of cookie dough, sculpted a Rice Krispie\u00a0core for the statue and started assembling all the details. To get the\u00a0design of the statue just right, they pulverized some of the gingerbread cookies to\u00a0create a material with a Play Doh\u2013like consistency for sculpting into intricate details.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A
\nPhotograph: By Rossilynne Skena Culgan for Time Out New York <\/p>\n

Aldrete (a.k.a. Bearded Foodie) is a chef and food stylist, while his partner Rotandi is a preschool teacher who describes himself as \u201ccreative and competitive.\u201d The duo won season 36 of reality TV show The Great Race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While\u00a0icing and gingerbread were main components in many displays, bakers got creative with other edible materials, too. Kit Kats became stairs on a brownstone, Pirouette cookies doubled as building columns and pretzels formed a porch.<\/p>\n

\"Gingerbread
\nPhotograph: By Rossilynne Skena Culgan for Time Out New York <\/p>\n

Other designs in the competition include a Broadway stage complete with gingerbread people representing various shows, like Hell\u2019s Kitchen, The Book of Mormon and Wicked; a rendering of Hotel Chelsea<\/a>; and a detailed portrayal of the Victorian New York Botanical Garden<\/a>. Some more obscure icons find a home here too, including an adorable re-creation of Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s cottage in the Bronx (complete with a black cat on the porch) and the historic Conference House in Staten Island. Go see how many landmarks you can name\u2014and pick your favorite of the bunch for the people’s choice competition.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gingerbread NYC:\u00a0The Great Borough Bake-Off 2025<\/a>\u00a0is on view at Museum of the City of New York\u00a0from November 7 through January 19, 2026. Find it at\u00a01220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street in East Harlem. General admission costs $23 for adults, with admission discounts for seniors and kids. New York residents are invited to pay what you can. Admission is free every Wednesday for all.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can smell it before you see it, the air thickly perfumed with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1739,2530,10592,2521,1733,1829,2520,2526,2522,2523,2524,1831,17864,17865,9,24,55,54,2529,56,904],"class_list":["post-28615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-categories-things-to-do","tag-family-kids-good-for-kids","tag-good-for-good-for-a-rainy-day","tag-good-for-good-for-couples","tag-good-for-good-for-going-in-a-group","tag-good-for-good-for-going-solo","tag-good-for-good-for-going-with-friends","tag-good-for-good-for-locals","tag-good-for-good-for-taking-parents","tag-good-for-good-for-tourists","tag-good-for-vibe-beautiful","tag-good-for-vibe-quirky","tag-holidays-christmas","tag-holidays-winter","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news-events-festivals","tag-ny","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}