Pastry Chef Crafts Gingerbread UT Tower

By Rose Cahalan in Blog on November 30, 2011 at 1:53 pm | No Comments

Pastry chef Julie Garner spent 11 hours crafting this 18-inch gingerbread UT Tower for the Four Seasons Hotel Austin’s annual Gingerbread Village.

It wasn’t Garner’s first time building an edible Tower. She previously whipped up a fondant groom’s cake for a wedding. “You wouldn’t believe how many people want a UT Tower cake when they get married,” Garner says.

The gingerbread Tower posed unique challenges. Because the Tower is 100 percent edible, Garner couldn’t use any styrofoam supports, as she did in the groom’s cake.

“It was really top-heavy. When I first put the clock tower on top, the walls cracked from the weight,” Garner says. So she started over from scratch.

Now the Tower is on display in the Four Seasons’ lobby amid a gingerbread landscape of Texas landmarks, including the Capitol.

The gingerbread houses are sold to raise money for the Seton Shivers Cancer Center. The Tower sold quickly for $1,000.

Garner didn’t attend UT, but she says she jumped at the chance to make a gingerbread Tower.

“I really love Austin,” she says. “And nothing says Austin like the UT Tower.”

Photo courtesy Four Seasons Hotel Austin

Tags: four seasons, gingerbread, holiday, tower