{"id":40731,"date":"2025-11-15T19:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T19:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/40731\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T19:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T19:03:09","slug":"exclusive-a-gingerbread-statue-of-liberty-won-spirit-prize-in-nyc-borough-bake-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/40731\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | A gingerbread Statue of Liberty won spirit prize in NYC borough bake-off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sweet Liberty!<\/p>\n<p>A two-and-a-half foot tall, 20-plus pound gingerbread Statue of Liberty captured one of the five awards for \u201cBest Borough Spirit\u201d in this year\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcny.org\/exhibition\/gingerbread-nyc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off<\/a>\u201d exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.<\/p>\n<p>Professional and amateur bakers from across NYC competed in Monday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/11\/02\/us-news\/bakers-create-replicas-of-iconic-nyc-buildings-using-gingerbread\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">confectionary contest<\/a>, whose rule is that every part of the creation must be edible, except the base. <\/p>\n<p>This Statue of Liberty took home one of the five prize for \u201cBest Borough Spirit\u201d in this year\u2019s \u201cGingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off.\u201d  Brad Farwell for MCNY<\/p>\n<p>That was the biggest challenge for Lady Liberty\u2019s builders \u2014 \u201cThe Amazing Race\u201d Season 36 winners and real-life couple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/rickyandcesar\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">C\u00e9sar\u00a0Aldrete and Ricky Rotandi<\/a> \u2014 who had to scramble to keep her on her feet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHonestly, the hard part was keeping the arm of the Statue of Liberty standing,\u201d said Aldrete, a chef and food stylist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe pretty much did a rod of gingerbread that we baked a little bit longer so it would be even harder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Amazing Race\u201d Season 36 winners and real-life couple C\u00e9sar\u00a0Aldrete and Ricky Rotandi created the sweet Lady Liberty. Jacqueline Tris<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s theme for the fourth annual Gingerbread NYC contest was \u201cIconic New York,\u201d which includes buildings, landmarks or symbols that rep the Big Apple.<\/p>\n<p>The pair added 50 gingerbread people on its pedestal, which is made of four pounds of Rice Krispies Treats.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tried to make them as diverse so people can come up and say, \u2018Oh, that kind of looks like me,&#8217;\u201d said Rotandi, a preschool teacher on the Upper East Side.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause people from all over the world come and see the statue. It\u2019s not just an icon for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pair added 50 gingerbread people on its pedestal, which is made of four pounds of Rice Krispies Treats. Brad Farwell for MCNY<\/p>\n<p>It took the duo three weeks to complete the labor of love in their Washington Heights abode, where they baked all the gingerbread themselves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did all the rolling by hand, all the cutting by hand,\u201d Rotandi said.<\/p>\n<p>A gingerbread version of the Chrysler Building, created by Dara Salinas Cabrera, a 2025 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, also reps Manhattan in the exhibition.  Brad Farwell for MCNY<\/p>\n<p>Other famous Manhattan landmarks out of the 21 submissions, on display at the East Harlem museum until Jan. 19, included the Christopher Street\u2013Stonewall subway station, the Chrysler Building and the Hotel Chelsea.<\/p>\n<p>The gingerbread entry of the quintessential New York \u201cCawfee and a Bagel\u201d took home two prizes \u2014 \u201cMost Realistic\u201d and \u201cGood Enough to Eat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sweet Liberty! A two-and-a-half foot tall, 20-plus pound gingerbread Statue of Liberty captured one of the five awards&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19656,12565,13143,23587,68,10341,23588,75,57,2576,9,24,55,54,56,16163,23589,23590,58],"class_list":["post-40731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-baking","tag-christmas","tag-competitions","tag-contests","tag-exclusive","tag-exhibitions","tag-exhibits","tag-manhattan","tag-metro","tag-museums","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-reality-stars","tag-statue-of-liberty","tag-the-amazing-race","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40731","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=40731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}