Gingerbread (charity) Some Gingerbread members run local groups offering peer support for other single parents and their families. Online advice and information Gingerbread offers comprehensive advice and information for single parents on its website, as well as a number of interactive advice tools and an online community for members. The advice covers areas including child maintenance, tax credits and steps to take when a relationship ends. In October 2011 a mobile version of the website was launched. Training Gingerbread offers training, employability and confidence-building programmes for single parents. It runs schemes in partnership with Marks & Spencer (Marks and Start) to help
Gingerbread house references from Vadstena Abbey of Swedish nuns baking gingerbread to ease indigestion in 1444. The traditional sweetener is honey, used by the guild in Nuremberg. Spices used are ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom. Gingerbread figurines date back to the 15th century, and figural biscuit-making was practised in the 16th century. The first documented instance of figure-shaped gingerbread biscuits is from the court of Elizabeth I of England: she had gingerbread figures made in the likeness of some of her important guests. The gingerbread bakers were gathered into professional baker guilds. In many European countries gingerbread bakers were a distinct