Gingerbread dates from the 15th century, and kransekake recipe biscuit-making was practised in the 16th century. The first documented instance of figure-shaped gingerbread biscuits was at the court of Elizabeth I of England. Most gingerbread men share a roughly humanoid shape, with stubby feet and no fingers. Many gingerbread men have a face, though whether the features are indentations within the face itself or other candies stuck on with icing or chocolate varies from recipe to recipe.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the world’s largest gingerbread man was made by the staff of the IKEA Furuset store in Oslo, Norway, on 9 November 2009. This section does not cite any sources. The Gingerbread Man” is a fairy tale about a gingerbread man who comes to life, outruns an elderly couple and various animals, and is devoured by a fox in the end. The Jasper Fforde comic detective novel The Fourth Bear features a more-than-human-sized gingerbread man who is a psychopathic serial killer that likes to pull off his victims’ limbs.

The difficulties in catching him are a reference to the fairy tale. The Gingerbread Men were featured in The Muppet Show. In the “Don Knotts” episode, the Gingerbread Men sing the song “Sweet Gingerbread Man” as the opening number. In the film The Brothers Grimm, a nightmarish twist on the Gingerbread Man appears. A young child is splashed with mud and the mud steals the child’s eyes, nose and mouth. It then forms a small mud body with the child’s stolen features for a face.

The creature grabs the child and absorbs her into itself. There was a stop motion in the 1990s called The Gingerbread Man. Archived from the original on 7 August 2013. Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume II: A Century of Wonder. Book 3: The Scholarly Disciplines, Volume 2″.

Gingerbread dates from the 15th century, and figurative biscuit-making was practised in the 16th century. The first documented instance of figure-shaped gingerbread biscuits was at the court of Elizabeth I of England. Most gingerbread men share a roughly humanoid shape, with stubby feet and no fingers. Many gingerbread men have a face, though whether the features are indentations within the face itself or other candies stuck on with icing or chocolate varies from recipe to recipe. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the world’s largest gingerbread man was made by the staff of the IKEA Furuset store in Oslo, Norway, on 9 November 2009.