BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Decatur House -- Exhibit: White House Gingerbread

DC -- Decatur House -- Exhibit: White House Gingerbread:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. DECATG_151110_018.JPG: The White House Gingerbread Created by former White House Executive Pastry Chef Roland Mesnier With Chef Mark Ramsdell Please take a moment to examine Chef Mesnier's largest gingerbread White House. On the grounds are sugary figures and Landscapes associated with holiday scenes at the White House during his tenure as executive pastry chef. Then take a visual stroll around the president's neighborhood and view the gingerbread cookie facades of historic landmarks and buildings near the White House and Lafayette Square.
2. DECATG_151110_046.JPG: White House Gingerbread: Holiday Traditions Presented by the White House Historical Association The holiday season at the White House is celebrated with an array of annual tradition, glittering decorations, the scent of fresh pine, and sugary treats for all to enjoy. One of the sweetest holiday traditions is the official White House gingerbread house -- but it's not for eating! Displayed on a mahogany console table in front of the gilded pier mirror, it has been the centerpiece of holiday decor in the State Dining Room since the late 1960s. A succession of White House pastry chefs have designed, baked, constructed, and decorated a gingerbread house for the enjoyment of the first family and all the White House guests and visitors during the holiday seasons. We invite you to view a gingerbread house prepared especially for the White House Historical Association by former White House Executive Pastry Chef Roland Mesnier and Pastry Assistant Mark Ramsdell. For this exhibit they have not only created the White House in gingerbread but have prepared gingerbread facades of historic sites in the White House neighborhood. Their displays are set in a White House-inspired holiday decor by Interior Designer Genevieve Gorder. Each year holiday traditions like these transform the White House into a winter wonderland reflecting our nation's history and the American home.
3. DECATG_151110_060.JPG: A Tradition of Gingerbread A recipe for soft gingerbread appeared in the earliest American cookbook. The main ingredient was -- and is -- molasses, a thick, dark syrup that is a byproduct of sugar processing. The molasses trade and taxes were so important to the colonial economy that President John Adams pronounce molasses "an essential ingredient in American independence." First Ladies Martha Washington and Dolley Madison are renowned for their soft gingerbread cake recipes. President and Mrs. Ulysses S Grant hired African-American cook Lucy Latimer based on her savory hot gingerbread. Latimer stayed on at the White House baking cakes for President Rutherford B Hayes, James A Garfield, and Chester A Arthur. Grover Cleveland's favorite dessert became known as "Cleveland gingerbread," made with buttermilk, molasses, soda, and a sweet, sticky topping that included seasonal nuts. When First Lady Lou Hoover established the custom of placing a Christmas tree on the White House State Floor in 1929, she decorated it with gingerbread men and gingerbread horses. In 1965, Lady Bird Johnson adorned the official Blue Room Christmas tree with gingerbread cookies in the shape of Santa Claus, snowmen, camels, teddy bears, dolls, and milkmaids. Then, in 1969, Assistant Executive Chef Hans Raffert added a gingerbread house to the Nixon family's holiday decorations. It was the beginning of another White House tradition.
4. DECATG_151110_063.JPG: Gingerbread House Technique and Construction The first step in making a gingerbread house is to design it, and its assembly plan must be worked out in advance. If it is to be moved, it must be built and positioned on a large, durable base. Gingerbread dough is the basic material. For house construction the dough is chilled and rolled flat to a uniform thickness. Then it is baked until fully dry, as it will absorb moisture and humidity when it is on display. To add stability and keep the gingerbread house from collapsing, each flat gingerbread sheet is supported with a layer of melted and tempered couverture chocolate. The outside walls are cut first. While they are still flat, fondant doors and windows, made using cardboard templates, are applied. Once the walls are upright, they are braced and they are graced with scrap gingerbread pieces and fix chocolate that is piped in and hardens as it cools. The roof is supported by pre-made gingerbread trusses held in place, once again, by piped-in chocolate. Columns can be created by pouring chocolate into molds made by covering wooden dowels with aluminum foil, then removing the dowels. To make the columns look like gingerbread house, they can be wrapped with coffee-colored marzipan. The gingerbread house is now ready for decorating. Snowflakes, icicles, ribbons, berries: the possibilities are endless!
5. DECATG_151110_066.JPG: A Tradition of Changing Gingerbread House Styles Chef Raffert's gingerbread house was constructed in a traditional German A-frame style, and each year it got bigger and more elaborate: more candy canes, hard candies, and jelly beans, more gingerbread men and gingerbread reindeer. In 1992, when Executive Pastry Chef Roland Mesnier assumed responsibility for the annual gingerbread house, he expanded the original concept to prevent a village of five gingerbread houses, with hundreds of marzipan figures and spun sugar decorations. The next year he created a replica of White House in gingerbread, designed to scale. It weighed nearly 100 pounds! Subsequent gingerbread houses have portrayed specific subjects, such as Santa's North Pole Workshop, a winter wonderland castle, treasured monuments of the nation's capital, and views of historic nineteenth- and twentieth-century White House's. Often these subjects have contributed to the overall theme selected by first ladies for the official Christmas tree and the mansion's decorations. To illustrate the 2002 Christmas theme, "All Creatures Great and Small," Chef Mesnier designed a White House with hand-modeled marzipan presidential pets on the South Lawn. For the 2003 "Season of Stories" theme, he placed marzipan figures of characters from popular children's stories on the Truman Balcony, South Portico, and South Lawn. Recent executive pastry chefs have recreated the White House in white chocolate.
6. DECATG_151110_070.JPG: White House Holiday Traditions The White House at Christmas has traditionally been a magical place for children. The first White House Christmas party was held in 1800 by President and Mrs. John Adams for their granddaughter Suzannah and the children of "official" Washington. One of the most memorable children's party was President Andrew Jackson's 1834 "frolic", which included games, dancing, a grand dinner and desserts, and an indoor snowball fight with specially made cotton balls. President and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt hosted a carnival for 500 children during the 1903 Christmas season, again with dancing and dinner, as well as musical entertainment, souvenirs, and ice cream in the shape of Santa and other Christmas novelties. Buffet tables and White House Christmas parties or receptions have always been laden in with a wonderland of treats and displays. Today's spun sugar sculptures and marzipan figures are descendants of presidential parties past. One of the most elaborate nineteenth-century buffets was a winter party hosted by the Lincolns in February 1862. On the table were a sugar helmet of waving plumes of spun sugar, fountains with sprays of spun sugar surrounded by stars, and the American frigate Union outfitted with sugar guns, sails, flags, and smokestack. The entire array was supported by patriotic cherubs. There were also beehives with lifelike bees swarming about the entrances, loaded with charlotte russe instead of honey.
7. DECATG_151110_078.JPG: Traditions of White House Holiday Decor In the nineteenth century, the observance of Christmas in the White House was a private event. First families placed greens on the mantels and entertained family and friends. Not until 1889 was the Christmas tree brought into the house. Decorated with candles and toys, it was sat in the Second Floor oval room, which President Benjamin Harrison used as a library and family parlor. Even then, Christmas trees did not become a White House Tradition until the Hoover administration, although First Lady Grace Coolidge occasionally decorated trees and the house. In 1923 President Calvin Coolidge was the first Chief Executive to preside over the National Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the Ellipse. In 1961, first Lady Jacqueline Kennedy decorated the official Blue Room Christmas tree with ornamental toys, birds, and angels to represent the theme of the Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Since that time each first lady has chosen a Christmas tree theme and decorated the mansion with the assistance of her staff and a team of volunteers. Decorations that have been especially popular with visitors have returned each year, such as the cranberry tree in the Red Room, which made its first appearance in 1975. For more than half a century, White House holiday themes have recalled American traditions, such as "Home for the Holidays" and "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Flowers, antique toys, and even Mother Goose has been featured. Each year the elegant mantels on Ground Floor and State Floor become showcases for creative and beautiful decorations that enhance the White House holiday spirit.
8. DECATG_151110_080.JPG: Marzipan Figures Handcrafted by Marlene Roudebush, former White House Pastry Assistant to Chef Roland Mesnier Marzipan -- made of sugar, egg whites, ground almonds, and water -- can be colored and shaped into decorations and sculptures, either by hand or with special carving tools. At the White House, Pastry Assistant Marlene Roudebush made thousands of marzipan figures for Chef Mesnier's gingerbread houses. For this exhibit, she has used marzipan to re-create a gathering of famous presidential pets, many of them also once featured in holiday decorations. Calvin Coolidge -- Rob Roy and Prudence Prim the two white Collies, and Enoch the Goose
9. DECATG_151110_084.JPG: George W. Bush -- Barney and Mrs. Beazley the Scottish Terriers
10. DECATG_151110_087.JPG: Jimmy Carter -- Misty Malarky Ying Yang the Siamese Cat
11. DECATG_151110_090.JPG: Woodrow Wilson -- Old Ike the Ram and a Sheep
12. DECATG_151110_092.JPG: Theodore Roosevelt -- Bear, one-legged Rooster, Chickens, and a Pig named Maude
13. DECATG_151110_095.JPG: John Quincy Adams -- Alligator
14. DECATG_151110_118.JPG: Red Room Cranberry Tree Handcrafted by Jennie Lewis, Former White House Floral Designer The cranberry tree in the Red Room has been a favorite holiday tradition at the White House since 1975. Over many seasons it was created with the help of Myrtle Elmore, a holiday decor volunteer for twenty-seven years. Jennie Lewis, who assisted in the White House floral shop from 1998 to 2009, remembers how she and Myrtle Elmore carefully glued each fresh cranberry on a moss-covered Styrofoam cone. These glossy cranberry trees were especially admired by First Lady Nancy Reagan, who loved the color red. For this exhibit, Jennie Lewis has handcrafted a traditional fresh cranberry tree. Today, the cranberry tree continues to inspire arrangements created for the Red Room. During recent holidays at the White House, sugarplums and gum-paste flowers have added a contemporary flare.
15. DECATG_151110_127.JPG: "Christmas is not a time or a season, but a state of mind." -- President Calvin Coolidge, December 1927
16. DECATG_151110_174.JPG: White House Gingerbread Holiday Traditions
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