The present invention relates to the construction of gingerbread structures formed from baked gingerbread components that typically include both upstanding wall components having edge regions that cooperate to define upstanding corner joints, and roof components that overlie some of the upstanding wall components. The present invention also relates to substantially rigid clips that are configured to grip, and/or to underlie and support gingerbread components that cooperate in adjacent pairs to define elongate joints of gingerbread structures being erected. In some instances, the rigid clips serve to strengthen one or more of the elongate joints that are bonded by lines of icing that extend along nearby ones of the elongate joints. In some instances, the rigid clips help to hold pairs of adjacent gingerbread components in desired assembled orientations while lines of icing set up along elongate joints defined by the pairs of adjacent gingerbread components.
It has long been known to construct relatively small one room house-like structures from substantially flat pieces of baked gingerbread of substantially uniform thickness that have configurations designed to form the upstanding sidewall components and overlying roof components of the house-like structures, with elongate joints that extend between adjacent pairs of the baked gingerbread components being bonded by lines of icing that extend along the elongate joints.
It has also been long known to prepare flat pieces of baked gingerbread which are of substantially uniform thickness to form wall and roof components that, when assembled with lines of icing extending along the joints between pairs of adjacent components, define structures which are more complex than simple one-room house-like structures. Many of these more complex structures typically have upstanding wall components that extend to a variety of heights, lengths or widths, with the upstanding wall components being overlaid by roof components that cooperate in a variety of ways to add interesting complexity to the resulting structures.
A long-standing problem associated with the construction of baked gingerbread structures of the type just described has been a weakness of the mere lines of icing that are used to bond, and to thereby retain adjacent gingerbread components in desired assembled orientations.
A more effective means other than the use of mere lines of icing has long been needed to connect, bond and support adjacent components of structures formed from baked gingerbread components.
The present invention utilizes a set of relatively small, substantially rigid clips to grip and/or to underlie and support overlying edge regions of adjacent pairs of baked gingerbread components that are assembled to form a gingerbread structure, such as a rectangular house, or other form or type of gingerbread structure.
The substantially rigid clips utilized by the present invention are preferably of two types, namely 1) base clips that are configured to both underlie and grip overlying edge regions of pairs of adjacent upstanding gingerbread wall components that define upstanding corner joints of a gingerbread structure being formed, and 2) roof support clips that are configured to grip one, and to supportively underlie the other of a pair of adjacent gingerbread components that form one or more of the elongate roof joints of a gingerbread structure being formed.
Some of the clips supplement the bonding action of lines of icing that extend along the lengths of such elongate joints as are defined by pairs of adjacent gingerbread components of a gingerbread structure. Some of the clips help to retain desired assembled configurations of one or more pairs of joint-defining gingerbread components that are bonded by lines of icing that may not completely set up until after the clips have been installed.
The lines of icing that extend along and bond pairs of adjacent gingerbread components are preferably spaced from where the clips are installed, so the icing does not overlie or otherwise hide from view portions of the installed clips. As such, the inedible clips are kept from being confused with the edible lines of icing.
If the clips are formed from substantially rigid hard candy such as that used in making candy canes and the like, all of the clips, the icing, and the baked gingerbread components of structures formed in accordance with the present invention are edible—which means that the need to distinguish the clips from the icing is not deemed as important as when the clips are inedible.
In one form of preferred practice, a pair of adjacent gingerbread components that cooperate to form at least one of the elongate joints of a gingerbread structure has a line of icing that extends along the joint—AND, the bonding action of the line of icing is supplemented by a rigid clip that grips both gingerbread components OF THE VERY SAME JOINT that has its gingerbread components bonded by a line of icing.
In another form of preferred practice, a pair of adjacent gingerbread components that are bonded by a line of icing extending therealong, has the bonding action of the line of icing strengthened by a rigid clip installed on the adjacent gingerbread components OF A NEARBY JOINT of a gingerbread structure—with the rigid clip gripping one, and simply supportively underlying the other of the pair of adjacent gingerbread components that define the nearby joint of the gingerbread structure.
Referring to
Referring to
As this detailed description progresses, it will become apparent that, in several ways, not only the base clips 20, but also the completed gingerbread structure 100 exhibit a significant degree of symmetry, as will now be explained.
Insofar as the completed gingerbread structure 100 (shown in
This “dual symmetry” of the structure 100 means that, as the construction of the structure 100 progresses, what takes place during the assembly of a first end region of the structure 100 (where the first end wall component 40 is located), will also take place during the assembly of the second end region of the structure 100 (where the second end wall component 50 is located); and, likewise, what takes place during the assembly of a left side of the structure 100 (where the first sidewall component 60 is located), will also take place during the assembly of the right side of the structure 100 (where the second sidewall component 70 is located).
Insofar as the symmetry of the base clips 20 (shown in
Referring to the top view provided by
Unlike the symmetry exhibited by each of the base clips 20, the roof support clips 30 exhibit no symmetry whatsoever. Referring to
As can best be seen in
A common dimensional characteristic shared by the base clips 20 and the roof support clips resides in a uniform width of the upwardly opening U-shaped channels 27, 28 of the base clips 20, and of the downwardly opening U-shaped channels 38 of the roof support clips 30. This common dimensional width of the U-shaped channels 27, 28 and 38 is selected to render each of the U-shaped channels 27, 28 and 38 capable of receiving and securely gripping any of the edge regions of the preferably uniformly thick baked gingerbread components that are shown in
Shown in
The baked gingerbread components 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 have what will be referred to as “interior surfaces” that are indicated in
Referring again to
The first and second end wall components 40, 50 have bottom edges 42, 52, respectively, as well as opposed upstanding edges 44, 54, respectively, and oppositely inclined, upper edges 46,48 and 56,58, respectively, that lead to peak points 49 and 59, respectively.
The first and second sidewall components 60, 70 have opposed bottom and top edges 62, 72, respectively, and opposite upstanding side edges 64, 74, respectively.
The first and second roof components 80, 90 have opposed bottom and top edges 82, 92, respectively, and opposite upstanding side edges 84, 94, respectively.
Having described the base clips 20, the roof support clips 30 as well as the baked gingerbread components 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90, reference is now made to
As is shown in the lower two-thirds of
A curved arrow is provided in
Because many of the upwardly opening channels 27 and 28 of the base clips 20 that are shown in
A next step of constructing the structure 100 is shown in
A next assembly step is shown in
As the upstanding edges 64, 74 of the sidewall components 60, 70, respectively, engage and are pressed against the lines of icing 144, the first and second sidewall components 60, 70 become bonded to the first upstanding end wall component 40.
In
It will be understood that, just as one of the two roof support clips 30 is installed to grip the upper edge region of the first sidewall component 60, the other of the two roof support clips 30 (not shown in
In
Finally, in
As can also be seen in
In one preferred embodiment, all of the substantially rigid clips 20, 30 are formed from plastic material—typically a thermoplastic material.
In an alternate preferred embodiment, the substantially rigid clips 20, 30 are formed using edible material such as hard candy—for example, such normally hard and relatively stiff and brittle candy as is often used to form peppermint candy sticks, candy canes, and the like.
Although the set of clips 10 shown in
Also, as those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, if gingerbread structures being constructed have longer roof joints (wherein the roof components of these structures overlie significantly longer upstanding sidewall components than are depicted in the accompanying drawings), it may be appropriate to use more than one of the roof support clips 30 at spaced locations along these lengthy roof joints to support the lower edge regions of the roof components—which will not cause the resulting structures to depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
If roof inclination angles of a gingerbread structure being constructed differ from that of the structure 100 shown in
In preferred practice, such icing as is applied to the structure 100 is preferably kept away from the clips 20, 30—so that no icing, and no lines of icing are caused to overlie or otherwise obscure from view any of the clips 20, 30. Making certain that no icing overlies any of the clips 20, 30 can be of importance, as a safety precaution, when the clips 20, 30 are formed from plastic materials that are, of course, inedible—so that the non-edible clips 20, 30 are not confused with nearby reaches of the edible icing.
However, if the clips 20, 30 are formed from edible material—such as, for example, hard candy of the type that is used to form candy canes and the like—permitting icing, or lines of icing, to overlie portions or all of the candy-formed clips 20, 30, may be deemed to be acceptable, but is not preferred.
If desired, a line of icing 96 (a portion of which is shown in
If short reaches of icing, or a line of icing 96 is applied to substantially fill the trough 95, such a line of icing will be exposed to view, which is inconsistent with all of the other lines of icing (such as are indicated by the numerals 144, 146, 156, 164 and 174) that are applied during assembly of the structure 100 so as to not show visibly to any significant degree when the structure 100 is completed.
Although the six baked gingerbread components 40-90 shown in
Although the baked gingerbread components that are disclosed herein preferably have a uniform thickness, gingerbread components that are not all of the same thickness can be utilized, in the event that clips such as those indicated by the numerals 20, 30 are provided that are capable of gripping the gingerbread components 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90, wherever there is a need for the clips 20, 30 to do so. For example, the upstanding end wall components 40, 50 can be of one uniform thickness, while the upstanding sidewall components 60, 70, can be of a different uniform thickness, and the overlying roof components 80, 90, can be of still another uniform thickness.
Still other minor modifications to the configuration of the clips and to the configuration of the gingerbread components described herein will undoubtedly occur to those who are skilled in the art—and such minor modifications will not cause the clips, the gingerbread components, and/or the resulting gingerbread constructions to reside outside the spirit and scope of the present invention.
The structure 100 shown in
Here are some of the many observations that can be made regarding the elongate joints of the structure that are defined by pairs of adjacent gingerbread components such as are depicted in
1) Some of the elongate joints of the structure 100 are underlaid, supported and/or connected ONLY BY CLIPS. These include the elongate roof joints that occur where the lower edge regions of the roof components 80 and 90 overlie the upper edges 62, 72 of the sidewall components 60, 70, respectively. No lines of icing extend along and bond the adjacent gingerbread components of either of these elongate joints.
2) Some of the elongate joints are connected ONLY BY LINES OF ICING. These include the four elongate roof joints defined where opposed upstanding edge regions of the roof components 80, 90, respectively, overlie the inclined upper edges 46, 48 and 56, 58 of the first and second end wall components 40, 50, respectively. No clips underlie or grip any of the gingerbread components 40, 50, 80 and 90 that form these elongate joints.
3) Some of the elongate icing-bonded joints are strengthened by clips installed on THE SAME JOINTS. These elongate joints include the four upstanding corner joints of the structure 100 which have the opposed, upstanding edges 44, 54 of the end wall components 40, 50, respectively, overlying the opposed upstanding edges 64, 74 of the sidewall components 60, 70, respectively. These four corner joints are underlaid by the base clips 10 that also grip the adjacent components 40,50 and 60,70 that define the four upstanding corner joints of the structure 100.
4) Some of the elongate icing-bonded joints are strengthened by clips applied ONLY TO NEARBY JOINTS. These include the four elongate roof joints where opposed edge regions of the roof components 80, 90, respectively, overlie the inclined upper edges 46,48 and 56,58 of the end wall components 40, 50, respectively.
5) Among the elongate joints of the structure 100 that DO HAVE lines of icing extending therealong are the four upstanding corner joints of the structure 100; AND the four elongate roof joints where opposed edges 84, 94 of the roof components 80, 90, respectively, overlie the inclined upper edges 46,48 and 56,58 of the first and second end wall components 40 and 50, respectively.
6) Among the elongate joints of the structure 100 that DO NOT HAVE lines of icing extending therealong are the two elongate roof joints where lower edge regions of the roof components 80 and 90 overlie the upper edges 62, 72 of the sidewall components 60, 70, respectively.
7) Among the elongate icing-bonded joints of the structure 100 that ARE ALSO CONNECTED BY CLIPS are the four upstanding corner joints of the structure 100. One of the base clips 10 underlies each of these four upstanding icing-bonded corner joints.
8) Among the elongate icing-bonded joints of the structure 100 that ARE NOT ALSO CONNECTED BY CLIPS are the four elongate roof joints that are defined by the opposed upwardly extending edge regions of the roof components 80 and 90 that overlie the inclined upper edges 46,48 and 56,58 of the end wall components 40, 50, respectively.
9) Among the elongate icing-bonded joints of the structure 100 that can be said to be strengthened by clips that are connected ONLY TO NEARBY ONES OF THE ELONGATE JOINTS, are the four elongate roof joints that are defined by opposed edge regions of the roof components 80 and 90 that overlie the inclined upper edges 46,48 and 56,58 of the end wall components 40, 50, respectively. These four elongate icing-bonded joints can be said to be at least partially strengthened by the roof support clips 30 that grip the upper edges 62, 72 of the sidewall components 60, 70, respectively, and have support arms 89 that underlie and support the lower edges 82, 92 of the roof components 80, 90, respectively.
Although the present invention has been described in a preferred form with particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way of example, and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangement of the clips and gingerbread components may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
This application claims the benefit of the filing date of a Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/707,074 entitled METHOD OF ERECTING GINGERBREAD STRUCTURES USING CLIPS ASSISTING TO CONNECT ADJACENT GINGERBREAD COMPONENTS filed by James E. Zeilinger on Oct. 20, 2017, Atty's Dkt. No. 7-535, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. This application is also a continuation-in-part of three related design applications, namely: 1) Application Serial No. 29/651,014 filed Oct. 20, 2017 entitled SET OF CLIPS THAT FACILITATE THE ERECTION OF GINGERBREAD HOUSES AND BUILDINGS filed by James E. Zeilinger on Oct. 20, 2017, Atty's Dkt. No. 7-536, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference; 3) Application Serial No. 29/651,013 filed Oct. 20, 2017 entitled BASE CLIP THAT FACILITATES THE ERECTION OF GINGERBREAD HOUSES AND BUILDINGS filed by James E. Zeilinger on Oct. 20, 2017, Atty's Dkt. No. 7-538, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference; and 2) Application Serial No. 29/651,012 filed Oct. 20, 2017 entitled ROOF SUPPORT CLIP THAT FACILITATES THE ERECTION OF GINGERBREAD HOUSES AND BUILDINGS filed by James E. Zeilinger on Oct. 20, 2017, Atty's Dkt. No. 7-537, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62707074 | Oct 2017 | US |