Baking Academic Freedom: A Gingerbread Interpretation by the Brenk Lab

As part of the UiB Christmas event “Academic Gingerbread City Like No Other,” we decided to bake our own interpretation of academic freedom, spending a joyful evening together working with dough, icing, and ideas.

The rules were simple: transform your vision of academic freedom and open research into a gingerbread sculpture. All creations would then be displayed together in the university museum, forming a truly unique (and fully edible!) city.

We let creativity take the lead as ideas flowed and merged, until we could see a clear picture in our minds. We chose to recreate a powerful symbol of barrier-free science: the iconic Sci-Hub logo. The image portrays a crow standing on a pile of books while holding a key in its beak, representing the act of unlocking access to academic knowledge beyond traditional barriers. We added our own twist by replacing the crow with a wise owl, a symbol of knowledge and of our university, and by personalizing each decoration to reflect the Brenk lab’s identity and spirit.

Once the concept was clear, the process became hands-on and collaborative. Paper templates guided the precise cutting of the dough, and after baking each piece to perfection, generous amounts of baking glue allowed us to assemble the sculpture into a stable 3D form. Colored icings, then provided the finishing touches and brought the entire piece together.

The project turned out to be a true test of our teamwork and imagination, but above all, it was simply fun. We hope you will enjoy the final result as much as we enjoyed creating it.

We would like to thank the organizers who coordinated the event and took great care of our sculpture, as well as the museum for exhibiting it alongside so many other beautiful creations. We would also like to thank our group leader, Ruth Brenk, for her support at every stage of the project and for turning her kitchen into our very own creative lab. We wish you all a Merry Christmas!