With focused intensity, gingerbread house maker Lauri Zaker rushed to build her gingerbread cookie fence with a bag of sticky icing. Her assistant for the day, John Peterink, tried to be helpful, but as the clock ticked toward the judging deadline, the best he could do was to keep out of Zaker’s way, as she raced to complete her dog house gingerbread design.

Crash! A tray of fencing fell to the floor. Zaker, who runs a dental lab in Santa Rosa, hardly blinked an eye as she stepped over the fallen pieces. With only minutes to spare, Zaker finally put down her icing. And just in time. The fourth annual West Coast Gingerbread House Competition was about to begin.

Zaker’s creation was one of 14 gingerbread houses entered in the competition, hosted and sponsored by local bed and breakfast, the Cedar Gables Inn.

The only requirement for the event was that the gingerbread creation be 100 percent edible — no wrapped candies or other faux treats, and fit on a 2-foot by 2-foot platform, said Susie Pope, co-owner of the Cedar Gables Inn.

Her only advice to the contestants? “Just use your own fabulous creativity.”

Pope said this is Cedar Gables fourth year to host the contest, but the first time to offer a grand prize of $1,000. “These (houses) are a lot of work, and it would be worth it to me to win $1,000,” she added.

Apparently the entrants thought so too. Coming from San Luis Obispo, Sacramento, Davis, San Francisco and Los Angeles and locally, most spent several weeks on their designs.

Entries were not your grandmother’s gingerbread houses.

CIA students Rebecca Zayas and Crystal White entered the contest just two days before the judging to make their first ever gingerbread house. Named “Christmas in Paradise” the beach shack featured sugared palm trees, a shredded wheat “thatched” roof, cinnamon sugar “sand” and a green and yellow fruit roll-up as a colorful rug. The two worked 13 hours the night before the judging to complete their design. “It was worth it,” said Zayas.

Eric Spreeuw lives in San Luis Obispo but is originally from Holland, which explained his gingerbread Dutch windmill. It was also his first gingerbread house attempt.

“This was fun and new for me,” he said. Reading about the contest online, he thought to himself, “Why not?”

Spreeuw works in a bakery in San Luis Obispo. He said he worked on the project on and off since September. Spreeuw duplicated his windmill using lots of royal icing, marzipan, crushed brown cookies, and a dome-shaped roof made of Janhagel, a traditional Dutch cookie.  

His efforts seem to have paid off. Spreeuw took second place in the contest, winning bragging rights and a one-night stay at the Cedar Gables Inn.

A smaller hobbit-like gingerbread house created by Jan Loomis of Pleasanton took first place, but the grand prize went to the baking team of Amy Andres and Jennifer Medrano, from the Fresno area.

Andres, a librarian by day, and Medrano, a postal carrier, said this was also their first gingerbread house.

Formed using gingerbread cake pieces, their gnome house resembled the cracked bark of a tree with colorful gnomes surrounding it.

The fanciful house wasn’t the pair’s first idea for an entry.

Originally they started out to make a winery-themed gingerbread house. When that fell through, they got to work on the gnome home.

Since Medrano lives in Hanford and Andres in Fresno, the two did much of the work solo, comparing notes by phone and e-mail.

Materials used to make their house included royal icing, rice crispy treats, spaghetti sticks and colored squiggly rice noodles that looked just like Spanish moss. Their effort took about 60 hours, they estimated.

The two said they had second thoughts when they arrived at the inn with their unconventional creation. Many of the other entries were traditional gingerbread houses. “Ours is like the drunk aunt at the Christmas party,” Andres said jokingly. “There’s not a right angle to it.”

The two were speechless to hear they won the grand prize. “I can’t get over this,” said Andres. “I’m dumbfounded,” said Medrano. Amazed, the two hugged and wiped tears from their eyes while accepting their ribbon and award certificates.

“It was very thoughtful and well executed,” said gingerbread house judge Gunther Heiland.

Meeting with the winners after the award ceremony, he reviewed parts of their gnome home, offering baking tips.

“You just can’t help but be thrilled when you look at these houses,” said Cedar Gables co-owner Ken Pope, who dressed as Santa Claus for the day. “I’m thrilled to have a venue to host something like this here.”

The public is invited to view the gingerbread houses on Saturday, noon to 3 p.m. at the Cedar Gables Inn.

For more info contact:

Cedar Gables Inn, 486 Coombs Street, Napa, CA 94559, 707-224-7969, www.cedargablesinn.com