Ohio dentist turns gingerbread houses into works of art

Dec 20, 2012

Ohio dentist John Learner, DDS, has made a name for himself not just through his dental practice in Cuyahoga Falls but with what he considers his true passion: creating large, elaborate gingerbread houses that mimic historic homes from around the U.S.

Dr. Learner with his Carson house, which took nine months to complete and took first place at the Cleveland Botanical Garden's 2009 Wintershow contest. The roof lines were all done with fettuccine. He wanted them to be blue, but the yellowish pasta mixed with the blue food coloring came out green, so green they stayed. All images courtesy of Dr. John Learner.

The general practitioner -- who has had a thriving practice for 28 years -- was interviewed this week on TV about his sweet creations and brought along an 85-pound recreation of an ornately detailed Victorian home in Eureka, CA.

He takes great pride in the minutia, textures, and sheer size of his confectionary creations, which often take the better part of a year to finish.

"I like my gingerbread houses to be 3-feet tall and too big to wrap my arms around," Dr. Learner told DrBicuspid.com. "If you're gonna go to the trouble, let's make it big so it looks nice and you can feast your eyes on all the details. Because if you make them really tiny, there's not much detail, just a lot of icing."

Hard tack candy that he makes himself, Pop Tarts, candy cigarettes, minimarshmallows, sugar cubes, walls of dried icing an inch thick, and wraparound porches constructed from candy canes help bring his gargantuan gingerbread fantasies to life. Some of Dr. Learner's most detailed projects have taken nine months to complete.

His architectural confections are replicas of famous buildings, such as the Carson Mansion, a grand Victorian home in California, that boasts a rock candy and waffle cone turret, Swedish Fish gables, a Ring Pop and candy cane wraparound porch, and a Fruit Roll-Up-wrapped colonnade. Every inch is crowded with detail, from dots of pea-sized jawbreakers to tiny butterflies and hearts punched out of stick gum.

Unique building materials

While Dr. Learner is a confectionary artiste, he doesn't like to bake. So early on he struck a bargain with a patient: If she agreed to churn out the hundreds of pounds of gingerbread he needed, he would fix her family's teeth.

Dr. Learner's St. Ignatius gingerbread house won first place at the Cleveland Botanical Garden's 2008 Wintershow contest.

Dr. Learner's sweet hobby grew from his love of architecture; he's been building model ships since he was in 8th grade and took up making gingerbread houses when he became a parent as a way to utilize leftover pretzels, cookies, and other food items.

“It's slow-going because in my spare time I have to do root canals.”

— John Learner, DDS

Even on vacation, Dr. Learner roams candy stores searching for building materials.

"There are certain things you look for, like all-white candy canes," he explained. "They're really rare." They served as the white pillars on a gingerbread replica he made of a Victorian in Kent, OH.

Dr. Learner also stumbled upon some unusual pretzels while recently visiting his daughter in New York.

"One of the treasures I found was in a Polish grocery store in Brooklyn," he recalled. "They had skinny stick pretzels that were a foot long and sheets of layered wafer cookies that will come in real handy for building walls."

The gingerbread dentist is obsessed with making every detail just right. He was miffed when the gum manufacturer Wrigley changed the color of Doublemint midway through his Carson Mansion project. Dr. Learner needed 100 more sticks to finish the roof shingles when he discovered the gum was no longer grayish tan but an unmatching shade of white.

Hansel & Gretel's condominium, which won first place at the Cleveland Botanical Garden's 2010 Wintershow contest.

"Big Red has thankfully maintained its color, so I buy big amounts of this stuff," he said.

Each gingerbread house typically take three to nine months to complete. But Dr. Learner's currently halfway through his most ambitious project yet: a four-year effort recreating Stan Hywet Hall, a Tudor mansion built by the founder of Goodyear Tire in Akron, OH. The colossal remake will stand 7-feet long, 3-feet wide, and 2-feet tall.

"It's slow-going because in my spare time I have to do root canals," he joked.

Dahlias and shadow boxes

So why does he do it?

"Unlike my colleagues who spend half their lives golfing and watching sports on TV, I don't golf and almost never watch sports on TV," Dr. Learner explained.

His esoteric hobbies also include growing dahlias and making shadow boxes. The walls of his office are covered with pictures of brilliantly colored dahlias and ornate shadow boxes.

Dr. Learner's 2009 Cleveland Oktoberfest gingerbread house display, which featured seven different houses.

He has learned to expect media attention during the holidays. "Everybody needs an article on gingerbread houses at Christmas," Dr. Learner said.

While most people eat their gingerbread houses or toss them after they're made, Dr. Learner keeps all 12 of his stored in his garage. "I still have them all," he said. "Pop Tarts last forever; gingerbread houses are filled with them and Wrigley's gum, and it just lasts forever."

But the gingerbread dentist warns his patients against sweets.

"I tell my patients they should surrender all their candy to me because I'm the proper authority," Dr. Learner said. "I'll take care of it for them and make sure it doesn't come to any harm."

And, being a true dental professional, he signs off with a cheery, "Keep flossing!"

To see more of Dr. Learner's creations, visit his Flickr photostream.