Gingerbread Star Destroyer
29.12.13
23:13
After the glory that was last year's
Gingerbread Death Star, we (Silje, Karoline, Tor & I) banded together again for another delicious and delightful Imperial end-of-year engineering and cookery project.
And as anyone who has ever made anything out of gingerbread will know:
The watchword is preparation.
Preparation, preparation, preparation.
We looked up the Imperial blueprints
here, and Tor did some quick calculations (that went only slightly beyond the capabilities of the advanced version of the iphone calculating thingamajig). If you thought you would have no use for geometry after high school maths, you have clearly not been doing the right kind of Christmas baking.
Once the calculations were complete and the plans had been drawn up properly, we broke out the gingerbread dough (which, this year, we bought ready made because our inventive cooking went a little awry last year).
We made four big triangles. You can use the same pattern for all, but remember to invert it twice.
If you don't, you'll get two half Star Destroyers rather than a whole one. And that will not help you keep the Rebels in their place!
We also discovered that doing the cutting on the grease proof paper may be a good idea. Especially when your calculations and measurements have been so precise.
Which they have.
Here are some more pictures of Tor drawing, measuring and cutting. He did not want a repeat of the Death Star debacle. We suspect some physicist pride got hurt last year.
Unfortunately, precise measurements can only limit, not entirely counteract, the agent of chaos that is gingerbread dough. Tor cheated. With a knife. In order to build The Bridge.
In order to make sure there would be no unpleasant surprises in the end, we measured again.
And
then we brought out the sugar. And
melted it (thus making the strongest adhesive known to man).
Tor had constructed a nifty little thing to hold the Star Destroyer (we do not have a tractor beam).
He said it was sturdy.
Then it fell apart, and we mocked him thoroughly. And then he covered it in melted sugar.
It is now sturdy enough to hold a Star Destroyer.
Tor's latent engineering tendency made a strong come-back with an ingenious and really rather pretty internal gluing-together-method minimizing the sugar expenditure in the lower hull.
If you are worried about the apparent emptiness of the Destroyer itself, rest assured:
We filled it with unhappy victims and clone-like minions before sealing it shut.
In fact, the only opening is the view from the bridge. We must hope no pesky asteroids show up.
Of course, we did not just want any old gingerbread Star Destroyer.
We wanted a
festive one.
Because even the Empire needs some cheer every now and then.
Why else would they make those bright red uniforms?
It does make it look dreadfully delicious, though.
Thankfully Darth Vader is there to guard against any gingerbread thieves or other Rebel scum.