Quincy baker competed on Food Network's 'Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown'

QUINCY − She baked for Jason Varitek, Rob Gronkowski and Charlie Baker; handed out cookies at a presidential inaguration; and has doled out delicious holiday treats to South Shore residents from her Quincy bakery for the last 28 years. This week, she took her baking taking her talents to the small screen.

Beth Veneto, owner of Quincy's popular Ginger Betty’s Bakery, competed on Monday's episode of "Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown." With baking assistant Shane Pratt of Plano, Texas, she created a gingerbread version of a holiday parade through a "ginger city" complete with Santa in his sleigh on top of a strip of storefronts.

"I live and breathe gingerbread all day, everyday," Veneto said on the show.

Though she didn't win the $10,000 prize on the episode, her "Christmas Parade in the City” work was full of Ginger Betty's signature bright colors and cartoonish characters. She created a small city, decked out for a Christmas parade and full of spectators, including toy soldiers, ballooons and a truck pulling a winter-themed float.

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This is the second season of "Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown"' which pits teams of gingerbreaders and baking assistants against each other as they take on all-encompassing gingerbread builds based on a theme. Judges Nacho Aguirre, Kardea Brown and Breegan Jane decide which team wins $10,000 worth of festive prizes.

Competitors were given the theme details a week in advance and given time to plan their display and make key pieces before going on the show. The displays were all required to be 4-by-4 feet and reach at least 24 inches tall at one point. The creations had to be 90% edible and 70% gingerbread. Once in the competition, teams had 10 hours to complete their works.

Veneto said she wanted to compete to show children "your dream can become a delicious reality."

The brightly colored Ginger Betty's shop has churned out holiday treats from Quincy for 28 years in a row. The shop has filled orders for people from states as far away as South Carolina and been featured on "Fox and Friends," a nationally televised morning talk show. She has also penned several children's books.

Veneto made the news in 2017 when she took her Donald Trump-shaped cookies to hand out at the former president's inaguration. In 2020, she made both Biden and Trump-shaped cookies and kept tabs on how many cookies of each candidate people buy. She dubbed it the "peppermint poll."

Veneto told The Patriot Ledger in 2019 that she hadn't always planned on being a gingerbread baker. When she first opened Ginger Betty’s, it was in part because she couldn’t find a job working in hotels after graduating college.

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At the time, she was selling gingerbread houses to her friends, family members and even at yacht clubs. Eventually she decided to make it her full-time business and, in April 1995, opened up Ginger Betty’s Bakery.

"I was thinking, 'Even though it's seasonal, I bet it'll catch on,'" Veneto said. "I wanted to have the magic of gingerbread all year long."

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Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Quincy baker appears on Food Network's 'Holiday Baking Championship'