gingerbread

Pastry chefs throughout Walt Disney World Resort make things a little sweeter with deliciously decorative displays and sugar shacks made of yummy ingredients during the winter holidays.  These candy-decked dwellings adorn the lobbies at various Walt Disney World resort hotels.  On the menu this holiday season at Walt Disney World Resort:

Disney’s Contemporary Resort

New this year on the hotel’s fourth floor is a holiday tree inspired by the art of Disney Legend Mary Blair (whose work can be seen in the mural on the fourth-floor concourse wall).  A team of 25 bakers created the 17-foot-high tree (6 feet wide) with gingerbread shingles.

Ingredient fun facts: 136 lbs. of honey,  101 lbs. of flour,  50 eggs, 75 lbs. of icing, 5 lbs. of spices, 5 pounds of sugar syrup

Disney’s Beach Club Resort

This holiday season marks the 10th anniversary of the “Holiday Carousel,” a fully detailed, life-sized carousel in the resort’s lobby that is created from a recipe that uses gingerbread, chocolate and sugar paste, and tons of enthusiasm, energy and talent.  Guests who wish to take home a treat of their own can buy small gingerbread houses from the Beach Club Marketplace.  Once a day, a guest is selected to have a photo with pastry chef Stefan Riemer and to receive a specially created gingerbread shingle.

Carousel fun fact: 10 “hidden Mickeys,” one for each year, can be found on the carousel.

Ingredient fun facts: 36 lbs. of honey, 96 lbs. of bread flour, 100 pints of eggs, 10 lbs. of spices, 10 quarts of simple syrup, 100 lbs. of icing, 50 lbs. of dark chocolate, 10 quarts of egg whites, 100 lbs. of confectioner sugar

Disney’s Yacht Club Resort

The lobby of Disney’s Yacht Club Resort becomes home to a delectable scene in motion: A miniature New England-style train races through a sugary rock mountain surrounded by a candy-coated model village in this don’t-miss edible display. For children,daily demonstrations of decorating gingerbread houses and gingerbread men are part of the fun.

Disney’s Boardwalk

The lobby of Disney’s BoardWalk features a “Holiday Gazebo” made of gingerbread and chocolate, with “hidden Mickeys” for guests to find.  Offered at BoardWalk Bakery are miniature gingerbread houses, stollen bread and a limited-edition pin featuring Stitch and the gingerbread display.

Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa

In the lobby of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is a gingerbread house large enough that it doubles as a real bake shop.  Featuring gingerbread using a classic Austrian recipe, the bake shop offers freshly baked items such as cookies and gingerbread ornaments.  Other homemade items for sale include stollen bread, chocolate-peppermint bark, lollipops and special Grand Floridian logo boxes filled with truffles.  Demonstrations of how to decorate a gingerbread house take place in front of the gingerbread house daily except Sundays.

Gingerbread house fun fact: Chefs spend 400 hours baking the gingerbread and 160 hours decorating the house.

Structure Composition: 16 feet high, 17 feet wide, 1,000 board feet of trim, 60 sheets of plywood, 40 window panes, 80 square feet of retail space, 100 square feet of display, 10,000 pieces of gingerbread used

Gingerbread Ingredients: 1,050 lbs. honey, 600 lbs. powdered sugar, 35 lbs. spices, 800 lbs. flour, 140 pints egg whites, 180 lbs. apricot glaze

American Adventure at Epcot

Santa’s Bake Shop at Liberty Inn at the American Adventure pavilion enchants guests of all ages.  Guests peer inside a life-sized gingerbread house at goodies galore.  The giant structure, made entirely of gingerbread, cookies and icing, features more than 800 pounds of sugar and more than 1,000 eggs.  Inside the bake shop, Christmas cookies and hot and cold beverages may be purchased.

[subscribe]