Kim Cook
That’s because the fourth annual Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bakeoff is all set up at the Museum of the City of New York on the city’s Upper East Side. On view till January 19, 2026, the exhibition features the imaginative creations of twenty-one bakers and artists who’ve built a pint-size metropolis out of gingerbread.
The show’s edible landmarks — this year including everything from a Broadway marquee to a wastewater treatment plant — capture the city’s imagination in sugar and spice.
I went for a sneak peek just before the exhibition opened this year. The first thing you notice stepping off the elevator, is the homey aroma of all that gingery goodness wafting down the hall.
The Museum sets up the displays in a dramatically-lit space, with snowflake projections dancing on the walls, and seats and tables set up in corners for those who’d like to participate in the scavenger hunt offered; written questions help visitors (ages 5-12 are recommended, but adults would have fun, too) find six features among the displays.
There are also magnetic tiles, if you want to try your hand at assembling a structure.
My first thought beyond ‘wow, it smells great’ was, how do the bakers, artists and builders handle Installation Day?
The Museum’s COO Jerry Gallagher had the scoop.
“Bakers take a range of approaches to getting their creations into the Museum. Some participants arrive with their structures fully assembled, carefully transporting them from their kitchens straight into the gallery.
Others treat installation day like a live build; they bring their components in pieces and spend several hours—sometimes across more than one day—assembling, piping, attaching details, and securing everything on-site. It makes for an exciting mix; on any given installation day, you’ll see everything from quick drop-offs to bakers hunched over their tables putting on the final flourishes of icing.
Creativity, community pride, and edible design are all part of the action.
Elizabeth Bellotti of Invictus Bakery created a charming row of Brooklyn brownstones, seen over four seasons, with window boxes, stoops and urban gardens filled with sugary trees, flowers and pumpkins.
Karen Chin, who runs her baking business Just Add Kare up in Queens, says a 50 lb bag of flour gifted to her by her husband was the spark for her baking journey. She’s created a gingerbread version of the iconic Westside Tennis Club, where the first iteration of the US Open was played in the early 1900s, in Forest Hills.
New York’s Cesar Aldrete, and Ricky Rotandi, a chef/food stylist and preschool teacher respectively, won Season 36 of CBS’s The Amazing Race. Clearly over-achievers, they’ve created an impressive gingerbread Statue of Liberty that’s won one of this year’s Best Borough Spirit awards.
Filiz Cihan Cemberci’s crafted some remarkable edible stonework for his Conference House; the 17th century building’s on Staten Island, and was the site of an historic meeting between British officials and Founding Fathers, including Ben Franklin and John Adams, aimed at ending the Revolutionary War.
Juliet Galea’s a teacher and mentor for those in or interested in the sugar profession.
She won three awards for her creation, “Cawfee and a bagel”, featuring a big stuffed bagel and that Greek Anthora blue paper coffee cup that’s become a city icon. “For many artists this is a dream come true,” she says, “but for someone who ‘bakes cakes’? It’s truly magical.”
Other whimsical, wonderful pieces to explore include the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Edgar Allan Poe’s cottage in the Bronx, the Hotel Chelsea, Brooklyn Bridge, and the Chrysler Building.
I asked Gallagher about the exhibition’s inclusion of structures beyond the traditional gingerbread house.
“Last year a baker created a ‘NYC-style’ Pizza Box, which was the first time we had a design go beyond the more traditional structure. This year’s we’ve got three – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Cawfee and a bagel, and Rockettes’ Costume. These are symbols or stories of NY you’d find walking the city streets.”
The most unusual just might be Kate Sigrist’s Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant; not the kind of city landmark you’d think of first when you were deciding what to make out of gingerbread.
Gallagher loves its uniqueness, but says the whole collection are his favorites for different reasons – the attention to detail; the thoughtful designs.
And he’s impressed with the time each takes to create. “Some smaller designs may take 20-30 hours of planning and construction, while the most elaborate entries can require well over 100 hours from concept to completion.”
Not to mention the hundreds of pounds of gingerbread, icing and candy.
“It all reflects the extraordinary creativity and effort the bakers bring to the competition annually.”
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New York-based writer Kim Cook covers design and décor topics regularly. Follow her on Instagram at @kimcookhome.
