Gingerbread Spaceship Display
The Holidays are a time for folks to come together. They're also a time for me to take on a gingerbread project that's ridiculous and time consuming. To that end, behold! The multiverse sci-fi spaceship gingerbread display no one asked for!
Sugared Nerd contributor Casie and I spent a week of evenings working on this baby. I origingally planned just one gingerbread spaceship, but then thought, why make one when I could make 5, and bring some of my favorite sci-fi properties all together for the holidays? So we have the Death Star from Star Wars (I know, technically a space station), the Enterprise from Star Trek, the Rocinante from The Expanse, Serenity from Firefly, and, of course, it's not Christmas without the TARDIS from Doctor Who (see my previous bigger version of the TARDIS here).
We used my previously-created silicone mold for the Death Star, but the rest were created using my own hand-made templates. You can check those out here, if you've got a desire to make one for yourself (I apologize for the tape and cookie dough smudges):
They are numbered by how many of each shape you need to make. And 1+1 means you need to cut out one on one side and one on the other (so flip the template piece over).
Since these were made to be mini-spaceships, we decided to take a different approach to the baking. Rather than cut out each piece of dough and bake, we rolled out a full cookie sheet of dough, scored the template pieces on each sheet, baked the whole thing and then cut out the pieces while the gingerbread was still warm. This was done in an effort to keep the super small pieces from burning before the larger pieces were done, and I feel like it worked pretty well.
The Roci in pieces
To create the Death Star, if you don't have your own mold you can also simply use a spherical cake mold. First, create a foil insert by pressing a few sheets of aluminum foil into the mold to get the shape. Spray the sphere mold and the aluminum foil with baking spray. Roll out a sheet of dough, then press it into the sphere like you would a pie crust, leaving some overhang. Freeze for at least 30 minutes. Press the aluminum sphere to the inside of the gingerbread and fill with pie weights or dry beans (again, like blind-baking a pie crust). Bake for about 20 minutes. Allow to cool a bit, remove the beans and aluminum foil, and continue baking until the gingerbread is done (about 10 minutes more). Trim the excess off the edge while warm.
For more advice, I still stand by all the tips I gave in my Nakatomi Plaza and Tardis gingerbread posts. Check those out, and happy gingerbreading, everyone!