Former Olympian still competing, but with a holiday twist

A former Olympian may have retired from her sport, but she’s still competing – only this time with gingerbread.

Michelle Harrison, owner of Prairie Whisk in Saskatoon, began baking professionally in 2017. At the time, she was a track runner and with her training and competition schedules, getting a “normal job” wasn’t easy, she said.

But baking gave her the flexibility to set her own hours.

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For the next seven years, Harrison baked while working towards her Olympic dreams, helping bring her “stress levels back down” from the “many highs” of track.

Then, last year, those dreams came true when she competed in the 100-meter hurdles for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Although a flu kept her from performing as well as she wanted, it was still “a really cool experience,” Harrison said about ending her track career on a high.

During that period of training and baking, she was approached to participate in the Festival of Trees gingerbread contest–and five years later, she’s still competing in it.

This gingerbread display, called “Gnome Sweet Gnome,” earned Harrison second place at the Festival of Trees. She said she’s still learning and hasn’t found a recipe she loves for gingerbread, yet. (Michelle Harrison/Submitted)

For Harrison, the best part about working with the spiced cookie is the decoration, saying how she can cover up any mistakes using art.

This year, her gingerbread display featured gnomes, and while the end product was “a lot different” than what she’d envisioned, as a new parent, she was limited in how much time she could spend on the project.

So, instead of the one or two weeks Harrison originally planned for, she managed to pull it off in just a day.

The finished creation earned her second place at this year’s Festival of Trees contest in the professional category.

Taking home the gold

The person who took home both first and third place in the category was Makenna Heistad, a baker and assistant manager at Citizen Cafe.

Heistad’s won the competition twice in a row–and this year marked her second time ever making gingerbread.

While last year she worked alongside a coworker to create a miniature version of their cafe, this year she opted for a carousel and a house.

The pastel coloured carousel and home earned Heistad first and third place, respectively. She wanted to use lighter shades because she’s “not a huge fan of the harsh” reds and greens, and placed the carousel on a turntable so it spun. (Submitted by Makenna Heistad)

The carousel, which won her first place, was designed to mimic the kind you’d see at the fair as a kid and took her two weeks to build.

“That was two weeks of already working an eight-hour job and going home and working on it,” Heistad said.

Her idea came from watching a gingerbread baking show, where she saw a lady in Saskatchewan make a carousel. While the architecture aspect isn’t her strong suit, Heistad was able to take her vision and find a design to use through Etsy.

Having the layout also helped ensure the structure had enough support, which is a lesson Heistad took from the year before.

“The most important thing that we learned on the first go around is that humidity is a huge factor in those big houses,” she said. “If where you’re building is humid, the dough–no matter how long you bake it–softens and your structure will bend.”

Another lesson learned was the necessity of baking multiples of every piece.

Since the gingerbread needs to fully dry out for the best structure, Heistad said it can make the cookie fragile. So, she baked six extras of each piece in case anything broke–which is what happened the year before.

Even with all the extras, by the end, she was only left with six pieces that went unused.

Looking ahead to next year, with a deeper understanding of gingerbread architecture, Heistad said she’ll try and push her limits, making more of the piece without a pre-designed layout.

After winning two years in a row, Makenna Heistad learned that she “can really do anything, if I put my mind to it.” (Makenna Heistad/Submitted)

Tips for amateur gingerbread artists

For those wanting to get into the holiday spirit by making their own gingerbread displays, both Heistad and Harrison have some thoughts.

While gingerbread kits are an option, Heistad recommended making different icing, specifically royal icing, to act as the glue for the pre-made cookies.

That’s because the typical icing included in kits won’t “stick to the gingerbread at all. It like actually just flies off,” she said.

But, if the plan is to make your own gingerbread from scratch, Heistad said the cookie will inevitably spread while it’s baking.

So, to make the pieces fit together perfectly, she uses a zester to file down the edges.

Those making their own can also turn to the internet for designs, which she said will save you the hassle of figuring out the exact pieces needed.

But, above all else, Harrison said anyone making gingerbread designs shouldn’t be afraid to “get creative and get dirty.”

“Just kind of let your kids dive in and just express themselves in whatever way they want,” she said.