PORTSMOUTH
T here’s no such thing as a small-scale operation when it comes to crafting an edible masterpiece for the Portsmouth Historical Society’s annual gingerbread house contest.
When Somersworth baker Jackie van Berlo decided to pay tribute to her place of work, the bustling Ceres Bakery in Portsmouth, the project took over her life — and apartment — for more than a month and a half.
She painstakingly designed, baked, assembled and decorated a detailed rendering of the bakery, from its quaint 19th-century Penhallow Street building to glimpses through arched windows of miniature breads and treats on tables and shelves inside.
“It’s a playground for a mad scientist (of a baker),” said van Berlo, who earned top honors in the contest’s professional category this year. “It was fun for me to do. The kitchen in my apartment was a mess! There was gingerbread all over the apartment.”
Van Berlo joined this year’s field of competitors having learned an important lesson in the 2019 contest, when she turned over part of her bedroom to a gingerbread construction that involved an abstract mountain scene.
“(But) I was waking up and stepping on bits of shrapnel,” she said of all the sweet, colorful embellishments that wound up under foot.
This year’s creation took up residence in her kitchen. She first baked up the idea to craft the Ceres Bakery in September and then launched a “solid six to eight weeks” of intricate work that included crafting tiny croissants, cakes and cupcakes for the inside of the bakery as swell as sweeping greenery that trails across the outside of the building.
In a whimsical touch, the figures in — and on — the gingerbread building represent her colleagues, including bakery owner Penelope Brewster, who originally operated her shop on Ceres Street but moved it to its current Penhallow Street location in 1983. Van Berlo has placed a smiling gingerbread version of Brewster next to a rooftop Christmas tree complete with presents beneath the boughs.
And that’s Gail Brewster, Penny’s sister, behind the counter and the bespectacled Lynn Voss making a cake.
“We had it on view here for a day (at the bakery), and it was great seeing people’s reactions,” she said.
Her creation is now on display along with 64 others at the Discover Portsmouth welcome center, 10 Middle St. Hours there are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Dec. 22, with two Fridays — Dec. 4 and 18 — running until 7 p.m. Social distancing measures and face coverings guidelines are in place.
In addition, 20 more gingerbread creations are on display in Market Square shop and restaurant windows.
While many rely on their own imaginations for themes, the historical Society offered up a possible concept this year — that competitors recreate historic or iconic buildings and architecture around the city.
Go to portsmouthhistory.org to see some side-by-side moveable photo illustrations of some of entries and the buildings they represent.
