Exclusive | Amazing 20-pound gingerbread Statue of Liberty wins ‘Amazing Race’ couple bake-off prize
Sweet Liberty!
A two-and-a-half foot tall, 20-plus pound gingerbread Statue of Liberty captured one of the five awards for “Best Borough Spirit” in this year’s “Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off” exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.
Professional and amateur bakers from across NYC competed in Monday’s confectionary contest, whose rule is that every part of the creation must be edible, except the base.
That was the biggest challenge for Lady Liberty’s builders — “The Amazing Race” Season 36 winners and real-life couple César Aldrete and Ricky Rotandi — who had to scramble to keep her on her feet.
“Honestly, the hard part was keeping the arm of the Statue of Liberty standing,” said Aldrete, a chef and food stylist.
“We pretty much did a rod of gingerbread that we baked a little bit longer so it would be even harder.”
This year’s theme for the fourth annual Gingerbread NYC contest was “Iconic New York,” which includes buildings, landmarks or symbols that rep the Big Apple.
The pair added 50 gingerbread people on its pedestal, which is made of four pounds of Rice Krispies Treats.
“I tried to make them as diverse so people can come up and say, ‘Oh, that kind of looks like me,’” said Rotandi, a preschool teacher on the Upper East Side.
“Because people from all over the world come and see the statue. It’s not just an icon for the city.”
It took the duo three weeks to complete the labor of love in their Washington Heights abode, where they baked all the gingerbread themselves.
“We did all the rolling by hand, all the cutting by hand,” Rotandi said.
Other famous Manhattan landmarks out of the 21 submissions, on display at the East Harlem museum until Jan. 19, included the Christopher Street–Stonewall subway station, the Chrysler Building and the Hotel Chelsea.
The gingerbread entry of the quintessential New York “Cawfee and a Bagel” took home two prizes — “Most Realistic” and “Good Enough to Eat.”
