The story
Tula Gingerbread Day in Tula
Den Pryanika, an all-Russian gingerbread festival, fills the Tula Kremlin grounds each summer with an exhibition-fair called Tulsky Krai, Gingerbread Paradise. Producers from across fifteen Russian regions bring master classes on baking, glazing and edible-painting techniques, alongside tastings of Tula's signature spiced honey cake in shapes from traditional stamped molds to elaborate decorative scenes.
Tula's reputation as Russia's gingerbread city rests on a craft passed down through generations of local bakers, who stamped dough into carved wooden molds bearing images of birds, flowers, fortress towers and inscriptions, then filled it with jam or condensed milk before baking and glazing.