Android 2.3/Gingerbread shipped with kernel 2.6.35 so I surmise that's what you're using.
Based on the contents of the Gingerbread GApps package linked below, the below files are what turns a 2.3 AOSP device into a Google-blessed device (those who install custom ROMs built from source must apply one of these packages since the Google components can't be distributed with the ROM image). This stuff basically just bootstraps things to the point where you can sign into a device with a Google account, sync contacts/calendars, and go download GMail from the Play Store.
system/app/CarHomeGoogle.apk
system/app/FOTAKill.apk
system/app/GenieWidget.apk
system/app/GoogleBackupTransport.apk
system/app/GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter.apk
system/app/GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk
system/app/GoogleFeedback.apk
system/app/GooglePartnerSetup.apk
system/app/GoogleQuickSearchBox.apk
system/app/GoogleServicesFramework.apk
system/app/LatinImeTutorial.apk
system/app/MarketUpdater.apk
system/app/MediaUploader.apk
system/app/NetworkLocation.apk
system/app/OneTimeInitializer.apk
system/app/SetupWizard.apk
system/app/Talk.apk
system/app/Vending.apk
system/etc/permissions/com.google.android.maps.xml
system/etc/permissions/features.xml
system/framework/com.google.android.maps.jar
system/lib/libvoicesearch.so