Trek the Halls: USS Discovery Gingerbread

To help spread some festive cheer in what will be a very strange Christmas this year, I decided it was time to make another gingerbread structure. It’s been a few years since my last one…

I re-connected with Star Trek (having always been a fan of DS9 and of the movies (old and Kelvin) towards the end of 2018 when I heard about the new podcast that the late Aron Eisenberg and Cirroc Lofton were planning with producer Ryan T. Husk. Focussing on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, this was the perfect conduit for me getting back into the franchise, and I have been a super fan of the podcast since then, becoming an Associate Producer early in 2020. To get involved, find T7R on Twitter, Facebook, Patreon. We’ve also had some great Trek to watch over the past couple of years, including new Discovery and Picard, with more coming to our screens shortly. In the UK, we’re still awaiting Lower Decks…

Over this time, I have met some wonderful people. I joined Starfleet Command and was welcomed onboard the USS Aron Eisenberg, and look forward to my weekly interactions with T7R #ChatPack as well as via new friends on Twitter. This kind and inclusive community has been such a blessing in helping us all cope with the challenges that we have been facing since the Covid-19 pandemic hit back in March.

The USS Discovery

Season 3 of Discovery started airing on 16th October, and this was my inspiration for the 2020 gingerbread spectacular! The USS Discovery! I decided to go with the original NCC-1301 design, rather than the 32nd century retro-fitted A version, although this was going to be my “Plan B” if the icing decided not to hold the nacelles. I have always loved the design of the Discovery, and love the spore drive flip!

The Crew

I hadn’t originally planned on making the crew, but having found a teeny-tiny gingerbread man at the garden centre a couple of weeks back, I thought it would be fun to make some of the crew to sit alongside the ship.

I had forgotten how many great characters we’ve been introduced to over the past 3 seasons! Far too many to have the time to make representations of, and so I took the difficult decision to focus on those characters who have appeared in this season.

That meant omitting amazing characters like Pike, Spock, Lorca etc. I also retrospectively made a Nahn after feeling a little bad for her having been left at the floating seed bank a few episodes back, and had enough leftover gingerbread to make a L’Rell (who I’ve missed this season)!

They are all so cute! Who is your favourite!?

Construction

I used the recipe I always use for my gingerbread, and it means that it will be entirely edible if we can bring ourselves to actually eat it! It’s the version from the Hummingbird Bakery recipe book. It is incredibly reliable and I’ve used this countless times to make all sorts of designs. Best of all, it tastes delicious.

For the glue, I made royal icing, which I made slightly thicker than usual to help keep everything together.

I deliberately made the structure fairly small, as I was concerned that its integrity might suffer if it were too large. After some digging around in the pantry, I had a light-bulb moment when I found some plastic cutlery containers that I decided to use as stands for the model. These took all of the stress off the joints, and after 3 days it hasn’t transformed into the NCC-1301-A model! Phew.

To boldly go

I couldn’t be happier with the result, and I’ve received so many wonderful comments on social media, including from some of the Discovery actors, as well as featuring in a fabulous article by the team at Daily Star Trek News! So amazing and thank you to everyone who took the time to comment!

The success of this year’s model has certainly sparked my enthusiasm for getting back into this tradition, and I am already thinking of some new ideas for next year. Do let me know if you have any suggestions:)

Check out some of the festive designs I’ve made in the past, including a Nakatomi Building, The Wall, Tardis and AT-AT. Full “how-to” details are available on these links.