This Artist Creates Incredible Sculptures Out Of Gingerbread

How did your last attempt at building a gingerbread house go? I know mine ended up looking like a prop from Mad Max but at least this year it actually had a roof which is a major improvement compared to last year. But even though you and I might be proud of our gingerbread monstrosities, we have nothing on the incredible sculptures of Caroline Eriksson.

Food artist Caroline Eriksson creates incredible gingerbread sculptures

“I have been making gingerbread houses every year with my family since I was little,” explained the artist in a recent interview with Bored Panda. “After a few years, I got tired of houses and wanted to build other things, like boats, castles, and towers. My family didn’t have that patience but looked forward to seeing new creations every year.”

In 2013, Caroline moved to Norway and entered a gingerbread contest where you could win a prize of 40,000 Norwegian krone (4,505 dollars). “I had been thinking about building a robot for a while, taking houses and boats one step further!” said the artist. “I thought it must be possible to do – if I started with very simple square inner forms and added details on top.”

A Transformers movie had just came out in the cinemas and Caroline decided to build Optimus Prime. “It took 3 weeks but I got it done and was very happy with the result,” said the artist.

Caroline ended up winning the contest and used the prize money to go on a trip to Bali. “The transformer got viral and after that, I have continued to make new creations every Christmas. I try to challenge myself with every creation, do something more advanced that I haven’t seen been done before, push the boundaries for what can be done with this medium,” said the artist. “That’s what I find most fun: to solve how to get the textures and shapes I want. But that is also what is most challenging and it takes a lot of time and testing to get right.”

This year Caroline built a life-size gingerbread Groot from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’

Caroline says it usually takes her around 5 weeks to finish her creations – one for planning and four for building. “I start by finding a lot of references and come up with ideas of what I want to create,” explained the artist. “Then I make a 1:1 scale sketch that I use as a reference for building a simple inner form first to get the proportions right. Then I add more and more details on top.”

“I make my own dough to make it harder with a smoother surface, for that I use more syrup, flour, and no baking powder! It’s still good for eating though,” revealed Caroline. “For every creation I use around 6 batches, which is probably 7kg of flour and 11 packets of sugar. I use melted sugar as glue as well, it hardens fast, is strong, lasts very long and is edible!”

Caroline says so far all of her creations have been movie related as she’s a big movie nerd but adds that she has ideas for game characters, ornaments and houses as well. “We will see what I create next!” says the artist.

Check out more of Caroline’s incredible sculptures

People love Caroline’s incredible sculptures