A mechanical engineer has produced an edible version of Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge after being told by a materials scientist that it was an impossible task. Dave, 33, recreated the Bristol landmark using gingerbread, strawberry bootlaces and royal icing. We have a photo gallery below and even instructions on how to build your own edible Clifton Suspension Bridge – see if you can spot the dinosaur made from the leftover gingerbread mixture.
Dave has a chartered mechanical engineering degree and claims to have a history of setting himself edible challenges, saying: “At first I just wanted to see if it was possible, but then somebody in my office said it couldn’t be done, and they had a PhD in materials engineering.
“Many materials like steel, but especially edible ones, experience a phenomenon known as ‘creep’, under constant load they slowly stretch. This made building the bridge a real challenge, the strawberry laces I used in place of the tension cables were the worst.
“Being an engineer is great, it’s the practical side of science and mathematics, you get to apply what you’ve learnt and solve real world problems, sometimes it’s just nice to set yourself a stupid challenge and see if you can MacGyver your way out of it.
“This creep property of gingerbread and strawberry laces did require an emergency reinforcing of the road deck to prevent the cracks from spreading. I opted for strawberry laces again and royal icing as composite material, much like prestressed concrete.
“There’s a lot of girls and boys out there who enjoy making things, maybe even a bit of maths and science, I’d encourage them to look at becoming a professional engineer. It’s adult Lego and you get paid for it!”
Dave’s Clifton Suspension Bridge Gingerbread ingredients:
125g Unsalted butter
1 Large egg
30g of Golden syrup
175g Soft brown sugar
350g Plain flour
1/2 tsp of Baking powder
1 heaped tsp of Cinnamon, ginger
A big pinch of nutmeg and cloves
Dave’s Clifton Suspension Bridge gingerbread method:
Mix the dry ingredients, mix the wet ingredients separately, combine everything and knead like bread dough until an even consistency. Roll out 4mm thick, cut out your shapes and bake for 9 minutes at 170 degrees C (fan oven), 11 minutes if rolling out biscuits a bit thicker. You can get the idea of how to put it all together from our picture gallery below.