Parks Commissioner Bakes Up Gingerbread Rec Center

While Santa and The Grinch garner most of the headlines at the Plainfield Park District’s annual Grinchmas on the Green tree lighting celebration, another element has quietly built its own dedicated following.

For the past three years, Plainfield Park District Commissioner Mimi Poling has been celebrating the start of the holiday season with the construction of a new gingerbread house for display at the event, although “house” may not accurately describe her work.

After building a Grinch-themed house for the first year and a North Pole playground in 2017, Poling decided to commemorate the upcoming opening of the Prairie Activity & Recreation Center in gingerbread.

Poling said that creating the gingerbread displays for the annual event has gained a larger audience for her work.

“I really do love that more people get to see it,” said Poling, who was appointed to the board in 2014 and was elected in 2015 and 2017.

Poling has been making gingerbread houses since she was 16 years old, a lifelong pursuit that stemmed from her love of baking and a recipe she found in a cookbook. It’s the same recipe she uses today and one that she’s perfected over the years to create just the right level of rigidity that holds the structure up but is still edible.

To recreate the scaled down PARC, Poling used over 22 pounds of gingerbread dough, 14 pounds of powdered sugar and 8 large Hershey bars to replicate the energy-conserving building’s 598 roof top solar panels.

In addition, it took about 40 hours to bake the 100 pieces of gingerbread needed for the project, over 24 hours to add the icing, and another 42 hours for assembly.

Poling does extensive research beforehand and even creates a foam board model before she starts the extensive baking and assembly process.

Just to recreate the new rec center’s 117 windows in miniature, she spent over 14 hours cutting templates, and another 9 hours pouring the 3 pounds of Isomalt, a sugar substitute that she used for the first time this year that helped recreate the look of real glass.

“It’s just amazing to me,” she said of the new material, adding that finding new approaches helps keep the annual project fascinating to her.

Commissioner Poling’s gingerbread PARC will be on display for the public at Plainfield Township Community Center, 15014 S. Des Plaines St., through the end of the holiday season.

An online album of photos can also be viewed here: http://ow.ly/ykYl30mQF4r.

About the Plainfield Park District

Founded in 1966, The Plainfield Park District is the 9th largest park district in the State of Illinois, serving over 105,000 residents and covering just over 43 square miles. The District serves both Will and Kendall Counties and includes park space and facilities in 7 communities including Plainfield and Wheatland Townships, Bolingbrook, Crest Hill, Joliet, Plainfield, and Romeoville. The District is an Illinois Distinguished Accredited Agency for excellence in delivering parks and recreation services.

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