Gingerbread makers were known as pryanishniks, and the trade was often passed from father to son.
Gingerbread was baked in forms. The appearance and beauty of the product depended on the quality of the form. Although there are no samples of old gingerbread surviving to this day, some old gingerbread forms have remained. They are known as “gingerbread boards” and they come in an astounding variety of shapes and forms, introducing us to traditions and customs of ages past, and showing little known pages of peasant and city life in Russia. The boards were made of birch and pear wood. Lower sections of thirty-year-old trees were used. Gingerbread was valued not only for its taste but for its appearance as well, so the carving of the forms was a very important process. Indeed, carvers of gingerbread boards were co-authors in the work done by the bakers.