Jennifer O’Connor of Aurora and her son like making gingerbread houses and decided to take part in the fourth annual Great Gingerbread Bake-off at the Eola Community Center in Aurora earlier this month to show off their skills.
“This is the third time we’ve come here. We’re veterans,” O’Connor said with a laugh. “I think the secret to making a good gingerbread house is making sure it stands up and has lots of candy on the outside.”
The Fox Valley Park District sponsored the event, at which families were given 90 minutes to put forth their best building and decorating effort before presenting their creation to a panel of judges where three different prizes were at stake.
The park district provided all the kits and decorating fixings needed, meaning it was all up to whatever creativity participants could provide.
Courteney Tillman, recreation supervisor of youth and general programs at the Eola Community Center, said the event is focused on holiday fun.
“Usually, we get anywhere from a dozen to 15 families,” she said. “We do get a lot of repeaters that have done this before. Last year, we had a family that actually goes around to other park districts and does this, so they take it very seriously.”
Jennifer O’Connor assessed the seriousness of the building efforts of her and her son “as about a seven or eight on a 10-point scale.”
Deklyn O’Connor, 14, said for him, “I love building things. That’s one of my favorite things, building little types of things.”
“This is a shared team sort of thing,” he said about he and his mother working together. “I do the outside and my mom kind of decides on the decorating. I don’t have a plan yet but we have to see what kind of supplies we have. They give us 90 minutes to do this and we’re going to need every minute we’ve got. We have to use every last second.”
Meagan Briganti of Montgomery participated with her daughters at the contest.
“The last time we did this we had to take a big bath afterwards because we just covered ourselves with the gingerbread,” she said. “I’m curious if we’ll get home in one piece or not.”
Jace McDonald, 16, of Montgomery, declared himself “a great gingerbread builder – straight from Santa himself.”
“I think what makes a good gingerbread house is a lot of color and a lot of structural detail,” he said. “You have to use the icing right. Things have to look good together.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
