A diplomatic family created a replica of scenes from the Ukrainian city in a bittersweet confectionary tribute.
, where at least three people died and 17 were injured after a Russian strike, with candy-colored walls surrounding a sugar-rendered emergency scene. “In memory of the children,” lettering ringing the display reads in both English and Ukrainian.
A war-themed gingerbread creation isn’t typical, but Velida isn’t your average baker, either. She knows diplomacy, having accompanied her husband, the former deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, on overseas assignments, including in Kyiv, where he served as deputy political counselor and deputy chief of mission. The couple are readying for a move to Estonia, where George will serve as U.S. ambassador.
Mariupol isn’t Velida’s first gingerbread rodeo. She began in 2008 with a generic house, an ambitious if conventional-looking structure, with instructions she found online. Over the years, she began weaving more personal stories and geopolitical context into her increasingly sophisticated annual confections. In 2014, for example, she re-created the Khan’s Palace in Crimea after the Russians prompted global outcry for annexing the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine .
Creating the Mariupol scenes required a different kind of ingenuity. She formed the steel plant’s tall stacks using cannoli molds she connected using rolled-up sides of aluminum LaCroix water cans, all wrapped in foil. She wielded Dremel tools and X-Acto knives of various sizes. She fashioned little carts of coke — the hard coal used to heat ore — using jimmies and dragées.She no longer builds initial models out of cereal boxes, the way she used to.
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