The Culinary Program is a lot of fun for students but they are also learning about responsible food preparation and food safety procedures. This holiday season the students applied these skills to create festive treats with teacher Kevin Tulloch. On a recent afternoon, students baked sugar cookies and then built and decorated a gingerbread house.

The students learned teamwork as they formed an assembly line to apply icing and then secure the gingerbread house walls and roof. Tony concentrated as he helped hold up a wall of the house as Samantha applied icing and Josh helped add another wall to the house.

Afterwards, they used the icing as glue to adhere candy and decorations to the house including gum drops, a gingerbread man and candies which looked like holiday lights. They even adorned the edges of the roof and the windows with tiny candies to make the house look more festive.

“The gingerbread man got stuck on the roof as he tried to save Santa,” explained Samantha who laughed as she decorated the gingerbread man with icing and candies. She noted that Santa got stuck in the house‘s chimney when he was delivering toys. His legs were visibly sticking out of the roof.

“You get to use your creativity,” Mr. Tulloch told the students, encouraging them as they applied the decorations.

Josh smiled as he helped to decorate the house, applying gum drops in front of the first-floor window. “I love food,” he said.

“I just love decorating,” added Samantha who said she enjoys making gingerbread houses at home and decorating them.

Afterwards, the students used sugar cookies to make a path to the house and then decorated the entire house and path with powdered sugar to create a snowy holiday scene.

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