Sweet, salty treats give shape to Latrobe gingerbread houses

You could try to eat it when the holiday season is over, but it’s really intended solely as eye candy.

Making a gingerbread house with all the trimmings has been a decades-long, year-end tradition for Lori Vaglia and her two daughters. This year, the Derry Township resident brushed up her skills in gingerbread construction by participating in a class at Eclectique, a boutique in Latrobe.

“I enjoy myself doing it,” she said after braving the first major snowstorm of the season Tuesday to attend the class. “I’m trying to get into the Christmas spirit. I’m glad to be out.”

Among the tips she picked up from shop owner Laurie Corbett: Using squares of breakfast cereal as roof tiles, fastened on with a liberal layer of frosting.

“I never used cereal before,” Vaglia said of her house decorations. “I used candy canes and little marshmallows and gummy treats.”

While the exterior details on Vaglia’s gingerbread houses may look tempting, each one goes in the trash after being displayed in her home for the holidays. By that time, she noted, the cookie slabs that form the walls of the house and many of the edible embellishments will be stale.

Also, “We have a dog, and all the hair gets on it,” she said.

Corbett was motivated to offer the class by Latrobe’s second annual Holly Jolly Gingerbread House Contest, which runs through Saturday as part of the town’s Holly Jolly Christmas activities. More than a dozen contest entries will be available to view in downtown Latrobe storefronts at Eclectique, Paper Heart Affairs, Rose Style Shoppe, Karen’s Hometown Salon, the Greater Latrobe-Laurel Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce, Ricolita’s Cafe and the Latrobe Art Center.

Visitors can cast ballots for their favorite houses during regular business hours at the art center.

The contest requires that edible materials make up at least 75% of each entry. That’s a guideline Corbett exceeded for her class and for a sample house she and her daughter, Shanna, assembled as a Thanksgiving Day project.

“I wanted to give it a trial run, to figure out the supplies we would need for the class,” Corbett said.

She realized moist wipes would be needed after pressing pieces together with frosting and trimming them.

“Our scissors were sticky by the time we were done,” she said.

In addition to candy, crackers, pretzels and peanuts added appeal to Corbett’s model house.

“We thought we were pretty clever with the snowman,” she said of one of the outlying features of her miniature display. “He’s made from marshmallows, and his arms are made from spaghetti noodles.”

Lisa Frederick and her daughter, Ashley, both of Unity, each built a house during Tuesday’s two-hour class. They were among five participants who donned masks as a pandemic-related precaution.

“We were really looking forward to it, with everything else being canceled” because of pandemic restrictions on gatherings, Lisa Frederick said.

She said the houses are “a way to express yourself. I like seeing when they’re all done, to see what everybody came up with.”