Gingerbread Workshop

The season’s first snowfall has covered the wooden quarters of the town in white, and the crisp frost pinches at one’s cheeks. It feels as though this November Friday evening has prepared the perfect setting for a cozy holiday gingerbread session.

At Kukonmäki, the kitchen of the Broström family’s old house bustles with activity — Heidi Broström is rolling out gingerbread dough, the children are making themselves sandwiches, and Hanna-Leena Manderson is eyeballing the amount of powdered sugar needed for the icing. Two dogs patrol the floor, and at the doorway, the master of the house, Petteri, watches the commotion with amusement.

“This isn’t supposed to be fun, you know,” he grins as the gingerbread decorators carefully consider the exact shade of their icing colors.

“Petteri hasn’t decorated a single gingerbread cookie in ten years, but he always has something to say,” Hanna-Leena retorts.

Hanna-Leena has been arriving at the Broström home with her gingerbread tools for their annual decorating session for more than a decade. Only once has the tradition been interrupted.

“It all started back when we were both teachers at Viikainen School, and Hanski hosted a gingerbread evening for us,” Heidi explains. “Ever since then, we’ve been continuing the tradition here as well.”

Heidi bakes sheet after sheet of gingerbread with practiced ease. Five kilos of dough disappear quickly, filling the kitchen with the scent of Christmas.

“Some of these will be decorated at school together with the students. We’re not planning to finish all of them tonight,” she laughs as the towers of baked cookies begin to sway.

Tonight, however, the real star of the show is not the cookies themselves but the icing — royal icing. The desired color and consistency emerge in Hanna-Leena’s skilled hands. At its simplest, royal icing is made from egg white and powdered sugar, and food-grade gel colors provide the hues.

“There’s a proper recipe for this — Kinuskikissa has one, for example — but I make it by feel,” Hanna-Leena says. “I prefer using egg white instead of water. It keeps the colors brighter.”

Making the icing yourself also ensures just the right consistency: a stiffer mixture works best for outlines and lettering, while a looser one is ideal for covering larger areas. The easiest way to pipe the icing is from a small zip-top bag.

– It fits nicely in the hand, and you can adjust the size of the piping hole yourself.

Hanna-Leena has been decorating gingerbread cookies since childhood. Every Christmas, a friend of her mother’s would come over for a cookie-decorating day, bringing along all her beautiful molds and tools.

Today, Hanna-Leena continues the same tradition with her own friends. As the season approaches, she retrieves large plastic boxes filled with gel colors, sprinkles, glitter, decorations, and a garbage bag full of cookie cutters — then makes her rounds at several gingerbread gatherings.

“I even host a gingerbread night at my partner’s former workplace, although he hasn’t worked there in five years,” she says. “I don’t even eat gingerbread much — for me, this is more like art therapy.”

When the Broström children were younger, the routine was that the smallest decorators worked first, and only after they were done was it the adults’ turn. Now everyone fits at the table at once, with only Urho and his friend representing the younger generation.

“We decorate until we’ve made all the cookies we want. Once you get into the flow, it can easily take you late into the night,” Hanna-Leena says.

Heidi focuses on outlining mermaid-shaped cookies destined for her students’ Christmas calendar. Her steady lines make it clear she’s done this many times before.

“The key to success is having the icing at the right thickness,” she notes.

Hanna-Leena has tips for fixing that, too.

“If the icing is too stiff, you can carefully add water — a teaspoon at a time. If it’s too runny, a little more powdered sugar will firm it up.”

By the end of the evening, dozens — perhaps even hundreds — of gingerbread cookies will be finished. In peak years, Hanna-Leena has counted the total number of decorated cookies climbing close to a thousand.

“My mom’s friend sometimes takes gingerbread leave from work before Christmas,” she laughs. “I haven’t gone quite that far. At least not yet.”