Advent in Gingerbread
An interview with Emily Cheung, Soprano Section Leader, Christ Church Cathedral
Soprano, Emily Cheung is one of the section leaders/soloists in the Christ Church Cathedral (CCC) Choir, and like the current section leaders and the ones who have come before she has embraced and been embraced by the Cathedral community.
The current manifestation of Emily’s conversion into her life as a member of the Cathedral community is her recent creation of a likeness of the venerable downtown Vancouver landmark in gingerbread, icing, sugar, candy and more.
Emily joined Cathedral Choir in October 2016, after returning from living abroad in Europe the previous 6 years. Emily grew up in North Vancouver and her first introduction to in her words, “the beauty and community that is choral singing” was with Celesta Girls’ Choir of West Vancouver. That early experience led her toward her career choice to become a professional choral singer. Since then she has sung in 23 countries, under the direction of 55 choral directors and in many beautiful locations and “stunning sacred spaces.”
During the final year of her BMus degree from UBC, Emily joined the Vancouver Chamber Choir and was the soprano section lead at Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Cathedral. In 2010, she decided to take the leap and moved to Amsterdam, where she sang with Cappella Amsterdam, amongst other ensembles. 2013, saw a further relocation to Vienna, Austria, with her new fiancé, and St. Stephen’s the Cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna was the venue for her Sunday church choir activities. Her fiancé was eager to move to Vancouver and Emily was happy to return to her hometown.
Since moving to Vancouver she again sings with the Vancouver Chamber Choir and Vancouver Cantata Singers, and is part of Early Music Vancouver’s Festive Cantatas taking place in various venues the week of December 11.
When asked to reflect on how she feels about her new church gig, Emily replied “I have been incredibly moved by my reception at Christ Church Cathedral. Rupert Lang is lovely, the music is always interesting and challenging, the services are inclusive and relevant, and my church choir family is not only talented, but extremely loving. I honestly couldn’t be any happier.”
With the preceding information now communicated it is time to move on to the focus of the article and that is an interview with Emily Cheung about GINGERBREAD CONSTRUCTIONS. A truly seasonal (and seasoning) topic.
What inspired you to take on this project? Are you a confectioner and/or a baker?
Before I left for Europe I began a tradition of creating annual Gingerbread Houses. I do enjoy baking, but for me, this is more of a crafting project, which I love. Every year, I make sure to learn a new skill, and so far my favourites include: a chinked log cabin, Dutch row houses with a canal, Neuschwanstein Castle, a tree house, and a “Frozen”-style dollhouse for my fiance’s 13 year old sister. This year is the first time I have decided to enter a competition, and I thought CCC would be the perfect choice, primarily to honour my church choir family, but also because it is not an easy building to replicate! It has so many windows and walls.
Do you use a specific recipe for the gingerbread? Are some recipes better than others?
I discovered a wonderful website called “Gingerbread House Heaven”, during my first research 10 years ago, and my favourite recipe is their “Another Gingerbread House Recipe (Using Lemons)”. I find that, as well as tasting delicious, it is the perfect combination of being soft enough to cut out windows and alter pieces without it snapping, but strong enough to make for stable walls. You just need to make sure to at least double the recipe, as it doesn’t make for much dough. For this massive project I octupled it!
Did you make the icing from scratch or use premixed icing?
The texture of the icing is crucial to creating a strong Gingerbread house, especially if it’s not your standard four walls. Therefore, I like to make my own icing from egg whites and powdered sugar for the construction, as you can make it almost putty-like and it sets rock hard, and then just icing sugar and water for the decorations. Sometimes I like to add flavouring or colour to the icing for different effects.
What kind of candy did you use for accents?
Well, I believe that Gingerbread Houses are made to be devoured, which is why I prefer the icing/candy style of Gingerbread House to the marzipan/gum paste/fondant style. Thus, for my previous creations, I would always cover them with the tastiest candies and make the gingerbread extra flavourful. My friends and I would then hold a Gingerbread House Destroying party and attempt to eat the entire thing. This time, however, I chose to go with a more “classy” palette of red, green and white, and so the candies were more limited to m&ms, jelly beans and the like. I really enjoy finding interesting ways to use candies, so I sliced the jelly beans very thinly to use as the two-toned stone detailing on some of the walls, used wafer cookies for the decorative columns and benches, and gold sugar balls for the Celtic Cross in the Memorial Garden.
How did you construct the bell tower and colour the “stained glass.”
In previous years I had utilized the crushed hard candy method for creating windows, but this year my new skill was learning to pour sugar. I did some research and found that isomalt (a sugar derivative from beets) is often preferred to sugar for sugar sculpting since it doesn’t caramelize as quickly, and so I purchased that from one of the specialty shops. For the windows I: baked the wall pieces, let them cool, cut out the windows, melted the isomalt to hard crack stage and then poured it into the window holes. Once they were cooled, I painted the inside with food colouring to the primary colours of the actual stained glass windows. The bell tower was the tricky part. I wanted to create a mold for each of the three sides to pour the isomalt into, instead of making one sheet of candy and then hopefully breaking it into rectangles. I couldn’t find silicon tubing to make borders, so I decided to fashion my own cookie cutters. Home Depot provided me with an aluminum duct that I cut into strips and folded to the right size. Then I placed the cookie cutters on a silicon mat, used tacky wall putty to hold them in place and seal any leaks in from the slightly wonky cutting job, and poured in my candy. To my delight, it worked like a charm! Once the pieces were completely cooled, I used food colouring and edible gold dust to paint on the design like the bell tower and used some chocolate bells I found to finish it off. Then I strung the crafting lights that I put inside the building through the bell tower as well to make it light up like the real thing. I’m really pleased with how it turned out!
How long did it take you to build this confectionary masterpiece?
Because the roof was so large and heavy I knew I needed the walls to completely solidify before attempting to put it on. Normally, my Gingerbread houses are a two day affair: one day to make the dough, cut out the pieces (I don’t make a cardboard replica first, or use a measuring tape, it’s all by eye), bake them, add windows if necessary, and assemble, and the following day to decorate, after it has set overnight. This year’s project started on the Monday, and ended very early on the Sunday morning. Not straight through, obviously, as I did have to work, but bits here and there. So, roughly a week.
Where is the “Cathedral” being displayed?
“Christ Church Cathedral - Advent in Gingerbread” is being displayed at the Gingerbread Lane at the Hyatt Regency downtown until December 29, 2017. The event is free to visit at any time of day and see all the entries from Secondary Schools, Amateurs, Professionals and Corporate, and everyone is invited to make a donation to the Make a Wish Foundation and vote for their favourite creation for the People’s Choice Award.
What will become of the Gingerbread Cathedral?
Well, sadly, since it will have been on display for a month, it’s not going to be particularly good to eat, but I shall ask the folks at the Cathedral if they’d like to display it somewhere in the Cathedral for a bit afterwards.
Thank you Emily! When Emily was asked if there was anything that she’d like to share she replied, “Go forth, enjoy life and create!”
IMAGES
- Emily poses with her "Advent in Gingerbread" in the CCC Choir room. This is pre-bell tower Photo: Courtesy of Emily Cheung
- Advent in Gingerbread on display at the downtown Hyatt's Gingerbread Lane until December 29
- Gingerbread Lane voting and donation information
- A close up of the main entrance
- The north face with the belltower
- The south facing in detail
- The west facing with Memorial Garden in detail.
Photos: Jane Dittrich except where noted