The gingerbread queen

Abbey Johnston is a home-builder of a different kind. Johnston, who has worked for seven years as the Pastry Chef at Affairs Catering Bakery and Café, creates the decorative gingerbread houses for sale there at Christmas every year.

As soon as the clock strikes November, Johnston starts preparing for the Christmas rush by making a “tonne” of batches of dough. Johnston needs 100 quarts of dough for 30 houses, which she makes six at a time because there isn’t enough space to do more.

Building a house is a week-and-a-half-long process. Johnston makes the dough, cuts it and bakes it before letting it dry for five days. Then, she paints it with Royal icing, which also needs time to dry. Four days later, this architect is ready to assemble the house.

With an estimated 100 houses under her belt, Johnston has decorating down to a science. These days, she can turn around one fully decorated house in 15 minutes.

Like most bakers, Johnston uses icing and candy to decorate. But she’s also made some innovations of her own, such as using Mini-Wheats cereal for bales of hay.

A few years ago, Johnston started adding plastic animals to the house, nativity and barn scenes she creates. She says this has helped to increase gingerbread house sales over the past three years.

On Thursday, December 12, Johnston finally finished her last set of gingerbread houses for the season. “My favourite part is when I complete them,” says Johnston, who admits she has been known to wake up in the middle of the night worrying about whether she has made enough icing. “I am happiest when the finished product is on the shelf!”