Another type of model-making with gingerbread uses a boiled dough that can be moulded like clay to form edible statuettes or other decorations.

It is believed gingerbread was first baked in Europe at the end of the 11th century, when returning crusaders brought back the custom of spicy bread from the Middle East.

He lived for seven years in Bondaroy, France, near the town of Pithiviers, where he taught gingerbread cooking to priests and other Christians.

It was taken to Sweden in the 13th century by German immigrants; there are references from Vadstena Abbey of Swedish nuns baking gingerbread to ease indigestion in 1444.

The most intricate gingerbreads were also embellished with iced patterns, often using colours, and also gilded with gold leaf.

During the winter months, medieval gingerbread pastries, usually dipped in wine or other alcoholic beverages, were consumed.

[1] The tradition survived in colonial North America, where the pastries were baked as ginger snap cookies and gained favour as Christmas tree decorations.

After this book was published, German bakers began baking ornamented fairy-tale houses of lebkuchen (gingerbread).

They are typically made before Christmas using pieces of baked gingerbread dough assembled with melted sugar.

[citation needed] Since 1991, the people of Bergen, Norway, have built a city of gingerbread houses each year before Christmas.

[17] A group of building design, construction, and sales professionals in Washington, D.C., also collaborate on a themed "Gingertown" every year.

[14] In the United States, the National Gingerbread House Competition began in 1992 at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina.

[18] In San Francisco, the Fairmont and St. Francis hotels display rival gingerbread houses during the Christmas season.