The Gingerbread Heart Cookie
A Story Told and Illustrated in Four Parts by
Hannah (then age 7), Madeleine (then age 5) and Matthew Yorke Gambhir (then age 3)
Part One: Baking
Their mother had just finished reading The Gingerbread Man when Hannah said, “I wish that I was the fox. The Gingerbread Man sure looked yummy.”
Madeleine agreed. “Could we make gingerbread cookies?” she asked.
“Please,” Matthew joined in.
“Well…” said their mother.
“We could make heart shaped cookies for Valentine’s Day,” reasoned Hannah.
Their mother looked over at the tidy kitchen that she had just cleaned that morning.
“Sure,” she relied.
So while their mother went in search of some aspirin, the three children set to work.
Hannah got out the recipe and read the list of ingredients. She put butter, sugar, corn syrup, one egg, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and sprinkles on the counter.
Gingerbread Cookies
1 cup butter 1 and 1/2 cups sugar
2 tbsp corn syrup 1 egg
2 and 1/2 cups flour 2 tsp baking soda
1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp ginger
sprinkles and goodies
- Beat butter in large bowl with a big spoon until smooth. Add sugar, syrup and egg.
- Sift together dry ingredients in medium bowl.
- Combine all ingredients, folding dry into wet.
- Chill for 1 hour.
- Dust work surface with flour. Roll out dough. Cut with cookie cutters.
- Bake at 400˚ for 5-8 minutes.
- Decorate with icing and sprinkle with yummy goodies.
Madeleine read the directions and got out the utensils that they would need. She gathered up a large mixing bowl, a medium sized mixing bowl, a big spoon, a measuring cup, measuring spoons, a rolling pin and the box of cookie cutters.
Matthew lugged and tugged three chairs over to the counter.
Soon flour was flying everywhere. Hannah and Madeleine and Matthew measured out the ingredients and mixed them together. They stirred and they whirred until the dough looked lumpy. Then while the dough chilled for an hour, the three children cleaned up their mess. (This is a fairytale, after all!)
After a very long hour of, “is it almost ready yet?” their mother took the dough out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter.
Hannah, Madeleine and Matthew each took a turn at rolling out the dough and cutting out the cookies.
The kids then decorated their heart cookies with red and pink sparkles. Into the oven they went for 8 minutes.
When the cookies came out of the oven their mother placed them on a rack to cool. They smelled so good!
“Wouldn’t it be funny if one of the cookies ran away!” said Hannah.
And, almost as if one had been listening, the biggest gingerbread heart jumped up on its stubby little legs and hopped down from the counter and ran out the door….
Part Two: Matthew’s Paintings
Matthew was making a Valentine’s present for his mom and dad. He was painting an incredible picture of his favourite trains.
Matthew began by painting James. James is a red train,
and since Valentine’s are red, Matthew was sure this train would look nice.
And it does!
Matthew painted Thomas next. Thomas is a blue train. Matthew thought blue was a very cheerful colour.
And it is!
Matthew thought that he should paint some yellow trains. Bill and Ben are both yellow trains. Bill and Ben are identical twins – so they look just the same. Matthew thought that they looked very nice.
And they do!
Matthew wanted to paint a green train, an orange tractor and a brown train – but he only had red, blue and yellow paint. What could he do?
Just then a Gingerbread Heart cookie ran right through Matthew’s paint.
The footprints looked like this:
“Wow,” thought Matthew, “I can mix red paint and yellow paint together to make orange paint!”
Terrance is an orange tractor. By mixing a bit of red paint with a bit of yellow paint, Matthew made a sunshiny orange. Matthew thought Terrance looked a bit like a carrot.
And he does!
Matthew experimented and found that he could make green paint by mixing a bit of yellow paint and a bit of blue paint together. Now he could paint Percy. Percy is a bright green train. Matthew thought Percy looked happy in his painting.
And he does!
Toby is his mom’s favourite train, so Matthew had to figure out how to make brown paint. He mixed together the orange paint that he had made with a tiny bit of the blue paint. Matthew made a brown colour that he thought looked perfect for Toby.
And it does!
Matthew was curious: he wondered what would happen if he mixed all of the paint colours. He mixed red, yellow and blue together and made this colour. Matthew knew just which train to paint – Mavis, the black Diesel. He thought he had done a super job.
And he had!
Matthew’s mom and dad loved Matthew’s paintings!
Part Three: The Flower Day
One February morning Hannah skipped out of her house. She was going to look for flowers to give to her mom for Valentine’s Day.
She saw some beautiful blue flowers and said, “These are beautiful flowers. I would like to pick them for my mom.”
And then she kept walking.
Soon she came to the woods. She saw more beautiful flowers. She picked some pretty yellow flowers.
She kept walking. Hannah was looking for more flowers to make her present really special. Hannah found some colourful flowers that she knew her mother would like. She picked these too.
Hannah found some flowers that looked like violets and she found some flowers that looked like marigolds and she found some flowers that looked like little pink roses.
Hannah saw some more flowers that she thought looked nice. Just as she was about to pick them she saw a strange thing: a cookie was sleeping in the flowers. It looked like it had run a long way and was very tired.
She laughed. That woke him up. He saw Hannah and he kept running.
Hannah picked her last flowers and took her bouquet home. Her mother was so happy. She loved them.
Just like she loved Hannah.
Part Four: Zoo Babies
It had been a strange winter at the zoo. Madeleine, the zoo keeper, had noticed that the animals were happier than usual. “It must have something to do with the nice warm weather,” she thought.
Stranger still, many of the animal mothers were about to have babies. Babies were usually born in the Spring – months after February – and Madeleine wondered what was going on?
Madeleine arrived at work early on February 14th to find a litter of new offspring.
The leopard mommy gave a soft growl to tell her story. She was proud of her new babies.
The leopard cubs looked like soft bundles of fur. 
The elephant mother trumpeted to share her good news. Madeleine hurried over to the elephant pen and gave a smile when she saw two big calves that looked like this:
The peacock mommy screeched a loud squawk.
Two little peachicks were opening their tail-fans for the very first time:
With her tall neck, the giraffe mommy saw Madeleine coming down the path. A baby giraffe is six feet tall when it is born – so Madeleine had to look up to say hello to the new babies!
Then Madeleine went to visit the Butterfly House. She liked to visit the butterflies because they are so colourful. She noticed two new butterflies.
The butterflies looked like this:
Just as Madeleine was coming out of the Butterfly House she heard the mighty whack of a beaver’s tail.
The beaver kits must have been born, she thought. And they were:
Madeleine had to listen carefully to hear the mother snake’s hissing. Her eggs had hatched and she now had two baby snakes that were brightly coloured:
The mother duck quacked and quacked and quacked until Madeleine came. Two baby ducklings had popped out of their shells.
Here are her ducklings – both with bright red heart shaped wings!
Madeleine thought that she had seen some strange things that day. But just then she saw a heart shaped cookie run past her – right into the foxes’ den.
With two quick bites, the fox cubs ate the Gingerbread Heart Cookie!
© 2005, Maureen Yorke.
