Gingerbread houses always seem like a good idea for the holidays — until you’re covered in frosting, the walls keep falling down, you’re exhausted and you feel a cavity coming on.
So it might be better to leave the hard work to the professionals, like Isaac Salgado, who has been building gingerbread villages for the past decade.
The New York native studied culinary business at Johnson & Wales University, in Rhode Island, before transitioning careers and moving to Long Beach in 2010. A few of his neighbors knew Salgado had been a chef and requested he make gingerbread houses for their children.
Salgado — despite being busy husband, father, owner of flooring company Rug’It and president of the Willmore City Heritage Association — obliged. And soon, a couple of simple houses turned into an annual tradition.
The first display he did was three large houses — and his production only grew from there.
Now, different businesses around Long Beach host the display annually.
This year, there are two whole villages, one at the historic Bembridge House that’s already complete and another at Modica’s Deli, set for installation on Saturday, Nov. 27. Various organizations, community members and businesses donate supplies for the build — including leftover Halloween candy.
So what does it take to build a gingerbread village?
Salgado’s own recipe requires about 90 pounds of flour, 16 pounds of brown sugar and 2 pounds of ginger, as well as butter, molasses and spices.
Each village requires at least 100 pounds of powdered sugar for the royal icing during installation.
Salgado’s secret to structural integrity is using chocolate as the “glue” for the walls because it’s more flexible. He only uses hard candy to embellish the houses because they need to last for months without melting. He also uses nuts, cookies, chips and even cereal to get the look he wants.
Once completed, the two villages will display 30 houses combined. Each house takes about eight hours to complete, from baking to assembly to decorating.
That totals 240 hours to create the 100% edible villages.
To make this true labor of love a reality, Salgado works on real houses by day and by night, he bakes the yummy ones.
The process begins in September, when he starts baking the gingerbread.
Neighbors tell him the nightly that the smell gets them hungry.
His wife and daughters help with decorating. Hulean Tyler, a friend, engineer and fellow board member of Willmore City Heritage Association, builds the structures to support the sugary villages. Volunteers help on installation day with frosting, assembly and finishing touches.
To view the gingerbread village — and perhaps inspire your own creativity — you can visit the windows at either the Bembridge House, 953 Park Circle; or Modica’s Deli, 455 E. Ocean Blvd.
