Edible Gingerbread Cuckoo Clock with Internal gears

Last year for Christmas I made a Harry Potter Gingerbread House, which was a lot of fun. Over the past year I have been brainstorming about what I would do this year and what I am came up with was a Gingerbread Cuckoo clock with working gears.  I couldn't get this idea out of my head and so I went forward and began planning and figuring this out!

I have never actually made anything with gears before, so I will talk about how I tried to figure this out and my trials and tribulations in the process. 

I did a lot of clock  research and amalgamated several clocks that I had seen online to create this clock.  It's actually pretty big for a cuckoo clock but it kind of had to be to get all of the detail in. 

I hope you enjoy the instructable, I had a lot of fun making this clock and I hope you like it too!

Step 1 Supplies

This part is very similar to the other Gingerbread instructable I have on instructables so I have borrowed what I already wrote. There are quite a few differences though.

To make the model:

• 2 pieces of 2'-0" x 3'-0" foam core
• Masking Tape
• Large sheet or roll of paper
• Pencil and eraser
• Cuckoo Clock Research and Sketches
• Computer to use Gear Template Generator
• ruler
• Cutting Mat for paper
• Exacto Blade       

To make the gingerbread:
I made two batches of this recipe to complete this clock

• 2 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup dark molasses
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 1/4 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

To make the royal icing:

•  2 and 2/3 cups of Icing sugar
• 2 eggs
• brown icing colouring

To decorate and shape the gingerbread before and after baking:

• Big cookie sheet
• Small cookie Sheet
• parchment paper
• rolling pin
• Sharp knife ( paring knife works well)
• Dull butter knife
• Icing tips
• Icing bags ( I just used sandwich bags.. a little cheap i know..)
• Paint brushes ( Nylon, new and washed with dish soap)
• Dark Brown and Black food colouring
• 6 cans of canned food ( for propping things up on)
• 4 candy sticks ( for the axles)
• Licorice shoelaces ( I like the Grape or purple flavoured)

Comments

[RollerScrapper]

Hi there, I could have sworn your entry was in the cookie contest but it's not. I was going to vote for it, but was only able to vote for the Harry Potter entry you have. This is such an intricate work I'd think you'd have it in the contest!

[mezcraft]

I guess, I thought one entry was enough, plus they are both gingerbread houses, so the "cookie" part of it wasn't that different, the application of it was but I guess I just thought one gingerbread construction by me was enough! However I am flattered you were going to vote for me! I hope you have a great day and I appreciate the compliment!

[RollerScrapper]

Amazing and creative! A true labor of love!

[aliciacar]

That's great because I don't like sweet ginger either! Thank you again. Loved your rhino!!!

[aliciacar]

Beautiful Mez! You are an artist! Please keep on creating and sharing! I have a question: no ginger in the gingerbread recipe?

[mezcraft]

Yep! I could have called it cinnamon bread but it doesn't sound right, but the truth is, I don't really like sweet ginger, it was still spicy, but it didn't have the ginger flavour just Nutmeg and Cinnamon. It's still super tasty and I LOVE cinnamon, and I like ginger in savoury dishes just not in sweets. I know it's kind of blasphemous to not include ginger in "gingerbread" but People recognize this as a "gingerbread" construction, I thought it would be weird to call it a Cinnamon Bread house...

[hungryhappenings]

You are so amazingly talented. I love all the detail on this clock and am stunned that it actually has gears. So cool!

[KeeperOfTheHome]

Kewl!!!

[RaisedByRobots]

Prop makers have to be the ultimate in maker magicians. What a cool job! Clearly you are qualified for it too. Very awesome.

[mezcraft]

Thanks! Calling me an "ultimate maker magician" is just about the best compliment ever. Propmaking is pretty neat, it's also a super weird job. Every day I am asked to do something different. One day I am fibreglassing 20 suits of armour and the next I am filling a severed head with different things to see if it makes the right thud sound when they throw it to the ground. It can get bizarre.

[RaisedByRobots]

Dream job => you haz it!

[bajablue]

You're doing a wonderful job!

5 stars for yet another impressive Ible!!!

[selahestelle]

Whoa.
Well, I'm new too, but I find your instructables pretty informative and your enthusiasm infectious, so you must be doing something right.

[jessyratfink]

This is great. I love that you showed what went wrong - learning from mistakes yay! :D

[Penolopy Bulnick]

Just amazing! Another one of a kind, stupendous gingerbread creation! I appreciate the gears even if they aren't visible!