What to Know
- Submit your colorful creation from Nov. 20 through Dec. 4 at either Discovery Cube OC or Discovery Cube LA
- "Hundreds" of gingerbread structures will be on display through Jan. 2, 2022
- Competition categories include Best Holiday Theme, Best Science Theme, and several others
Icing, gumdrops, candy canes, and science?
These components can all help a creatively constructed, fancifully frosted gingerbread house to truly stand out.
But before the tasty toppings and the quaint candies can come into play, the gingerbread-wielding builder needs to employ the essential ideas of engineering, to help walls stand, doors open, and various cookie-fun chimneys not to topple once they're set in place.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
The fact that the principles of STEM learning are at the heart of gingerbread-based builds is one of the reasons that Discovery Cube OC and Discovery Cube LA regularly helm what's billed as the "largest gingerbread contest" in the region.
Of course, the adorable abodes also add holiday-style happiness to both campuses, another lovely layer in this ultra-cute competition.
Now the science-minded educational institutions will again welcome bakers to submit their sweet structures, all to see who will top a variety of competitive categories, from "Holidays Around the World" to "Best Science Theme."
The popular gingerbread bake-off, build-off, and decorate-off? It's the showy centerpiece of the "Science of Gingerbread," the Discovery Cube's annual December exhibition.
Eager to throw, er, gently place your gingerbread structure in the competitive ring? You can read up on the rules here, and check out photos featuring some past winners.
Drop-offs may be made at either Discovery Cube campus beginning on Nov. 20 at 11 in the morning. The final date to enter your incredible, eye-catching confection? It's Dec. 4, 2021.
Science-loving kids, aspiring engineers, and pastry-perfecting home cooks are all invited to enter, as well as anyone who'd love to take part in this large-scale showdown.
Two awards ceremonies, one for each location, will take place over the second weekend of December. But the frosting-laden fun will continue throughout the month, for all of the submitted gingerbread structures will remain on view at both Discovery Cubes through Jan. 2, 2022.
"Science at its core offers is the ability to collaborate, create and innovate, a notion on full display during our annual Science of Gingerbread competition and display event," said Joe Adams, CEO, Discovery Cube.
"Every holiday season, we marvel at the level of creative construction and clever engineering we see with each and every Gingerbread submission. Truly an example of holiday science in motion."
For everything you need to know, bakers, builders, scientists, and culinary inventors of Southern California, visit the "Science of Gingerbread" site now.
