I spent a whirlwind hour or so at the Grand Floridian’s gorgeous Gingerbread House this weekend, and I can’t wait to share the highlights with you!
Grand Floridian 2010 Gingerbread House
Free Gingerbread Decorating Demonstration
Free stuff alert! At Disney World’s Grand Floridian Resort you can attend a free gingerbread house decorating demonstration Monday through Saturday at 1:00pm! Just head over to the giant gingerbread house at 1 o’clock, and you’ll encounter one of the nicest pastry chefs I’ve ever met directing folks on how to make gingerbread houses similar to those sold at Disney World during the holiday season.
I learned some great techniques about how to keep your gingerbread house roof from caving in, how to put icicles on the house so that they don’t break off, and even how to keep ants from invading your house!
All Around the House
After the presentation, I scoped out the decorations on this year’s massive Gingerbread House!
Grand Floridian Gingerbread House
75-pound Chocolate Santa
Gingerbread House Porch
The best thing about the gingerbread house this year — they’ve got the chimney working! It now puffs out “cinnamon smoke” every few minutes 🙂
Chimney
Get Your Very Own!
And had to get around to the back to pick up some of my own samples. Among the items for sale are gingerbread houses like the one I’d just seen being made, gingerbread shingles slathered in chocolate, solid milk chocolate boxes, gingerbread cookies, and more!
Lined up waiting to buy gingerbread at the Gingerbread House
Gingerbread House Cast Member
Gingerbread House Price List -- click for larger image
Mini Gingerbread Houses for Sale
Solid Chocolate Box
I bought a gingerbread shingle (coated in chocolate) to try. The shingle was surprisingly soft — almost rubbery — and chewy. The strong gingerbread taste (not enough chocolate for me!) was a bit too bitter for me, so I only took a couple of bites. That said, if you’re a big gingerbread fan, definitely buy a shingle for the novelty of the thing!
Grand Floridian Gingerbread House Shingle
Gingerbread Shingle Info
Shingle Unwrapped
Gingerbread Shingle cross-section
Have you been to the Grand Floridian’s Gingerbread House? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!
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The idea of building these displays with food is a subject that moves me in two different directions. On one hand I find it fascinating to watch these pastry chefs build such beautiful things (ala Food Network’s Challenge series) out of food products, and on the other hand it seems to be such a waste of time and food resources on something that no one will eat and will be eventually discarded. If they build it realistically out of plastic to be shown year after year it wouldn’t have the same impact and bring the same Holiday magic, but it still seems a shame to waste so much food. Like I said, it is a real poser for me.
Alan, I’d never thought about it that way! When you look at that list of ingredients, you do realize how many food resources go into these gingerbread displays every year. And I also know that so much food is being wasted in the food-service industry every day… It’s something for Disney to consider.
I never knew the fact about Cajun pepper and cinnamon with ants. I will definitely keep that in mind next time that I come across one.
The shingle looks quite good. By the way, was it soft?
gorgeous! gorgeous! gorgeous! but i’m with alan. that’s a crazy amount of food that’ll eventually be thrown away. 🙁
btw, i’m soooooooooo jealous you’re at WDW! weren’t you just there? 😉
Too cool! After reading Alan’s post, I just wanted to share that according to a Disney Sustainability report on benefits_of_recycling.com, “the Disney Harvest program founded in 1998, distributes nearly 50,000 pounds of food to the Second Harvest Food Bank each month by collecting food which is prepared and not served from restaurants and convention centers.”
They also say that “used cooking oil at the Walt Disney World Resort is recycled into bio fuel and other products, which are used by local companies. Food scraps are combined with horticulture clippings and leftovers from Disney’s Animal Kingdom and other degradable items to create compost which is used locally as rich fertilizer.”
I thought that that was really neat! I’m with you though; it is spectacular, but it’d be great if there was a way Disney could avoid wasting so much food for the gingerbread house.
Devin is correct that Disney as a corporation is very socially and environmentally responsible. I admire that. I’m sure more half squeezed or unused ketchup packets are thrown away in the food courts everyday, than the waste from the gingerbread house. That is why this subject is one I probably never will be able to make up my mind about.