holiday fun
Edible
Architecture
Molli Dowd’s Edible Estates
recreates homes in gingerbread
WRITTEN BY JULIA MARTIN PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNE-MARIE CARUSO
B
aking at Christmas was
always something Molli
Dowd did for fun. No
matter how busy she was
with her landscape design
business, coaching the
Montclair Kimberley Academy girls’
volleyball team, or serving on the board
at Van Vleck House and Gardens,
making a gingerbread house with her
kids was a top priority.
But then friends and neighbors
began marveling at her creations, and
Dowd, who lives in Verona, began
sharing her talents. She gifted replicas
of friends’ homes, hosted a holiday
party where guests created their own
gingerbread houses, and taught a
class at Van Vleck.
Now, her Edible Estates business is
booming. But creating miniature scale
models of houses in gingerbread is
still fun for Dowd, who replicates the
homes’ smallest details, down to walk-
ways and landscaping, for local cus-
tomers and corporate clients. She also
teaches classes, curates make-your-own
“Gin & Gingerbread” holiday parties
and teaches gingerbread-making classes.
In fact, she’s so busy this time of year
and having so much fun that she’s scal-
ing back her landscaping work to focus
18
HOLIDAY 2019 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE
on gingerbread year-round. “I’ve never
even advertised, and I have more
interest than I can handle,” she says.
Here’s how Dowd turned a favorite
pastime into a thriving home-based
business.
HOW DID YOUR BUSINESS GET
STARTED? It was December 2001,
and I was in the kitchen making a
gingerbread house with my daughter
Samantha when we heard the siren on
the firetruck; Santa was on his rounds
in our Verona neighborhood distribut-
ing candy canes. We ran out and saw
three young children from the house
across the street waving excitedly from
the curb. They had lost their father
just three months earlier on 9/11, and
seeing them there with no parents, I
just lost it. I ran back inside so they
wouldn’t see me crying. Samantha and
I assembled the gingerbread house,
made a “frosting glue gun” and packed
up the trimmings — red and white
peppermints, tiny marshmallows,
silver balls, colorful nonpareils —
and brought the whole thing over.
Our neighbors loved and appreciated
it so much that we’ve brought them
one every year since, getting more and
more creative — even when the kids