As the second shift of the Downtown District Gingerbread House Competition began Sunday evening, the meeting room in hotelVetro, 201 S. Linn St., erupted in chatter as teams worked to create a winning gingerbread house.
The competition, which is in its third year, started in a heated tent on the Pedestrian Mall but has since moved to an indoor location.
This year, a new category was added for teams 12 years of age and under to allow younger competitors to compete against people in their age group.
Downtown District Director of Operations Betsy Potter said the competition sees very creative and well-made gingerbread houses, including one designed as a Hobbit house from the Lord of the Rings series and another designed as the Englert, 221 E. Washington St.
Contestants could register for two different shifts; one from 1-3 p.m. and the other from 6-8 p.m.
Once the competition started, teams had an hour and a half to create totally edible structures using gingerbread, frosting, candy, and imagination. No word on the caloric count of imagination.
Contestants were allowed to use their own materials alongside the ones provided. Potter noted that the gingerbread used in the competition was made by Molly’s Cupcakes of Iowa City instead of coming from a store-bought kit.
“Our gingerbread is different,” Potter said. “You can mold it a little bit easier, which is a benefit and a challenge.”
Throughout the competition, United Way volunteers and Downtown District employees roamed the room, inspecting the creations while teams worked quickly to finish before time ran out.
Many teams used images on cellphones as a guide for construction. While traditional house designs were popular among the competing teams, a few teams had more creative ideas for their designs.
“So much creativity goes into those houses,” Downtown District special-events assistant Christopher Hunter said.
Hunter has photographed the gingerbread house competition over the years, commemorating the gingerbread houses of years past in a photo book housed in the Downtown District office, on the Ped Mall.
After the competition ends, winners are selected by a panel of three judges with two age groups, 12 and under and general. In the general category, there were two awards: most creative and best overall.
When making a gingerbread house, the team of Lianna Cornally, Cherri Erkel, Laura Portier-LaLumiere, and Michele Langseth agreed that the most important part of the process was the accuracy of the details, especially when creating a movie-theme gingerbread house.
The team, which is composed of writers from Iowa City Moms Blog, used the classic film, “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” as inspiration for their Whoville design.
Langseth noted the team members have switched up over the past three years but she and Cornally have participated in the competition since its inception.
The team trades ideas for both the matching shirts they wear during the competition and the gingerbread house itself in a Facebook group throughout the year.
“We look forward to this all year,” Langseth said. “We will likely start thinking of a theme for next year’s in the coming weeks and months.”