AURORA, Colo. — It's a sweet sight to see, and it smells good too. The life-sized gingerbread mountain cabin is now on display at Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, thanks to a dedicated team of 25 pastry cooks who used more than 2,000 pounds of ingredients.
The executive pastry chef, Brielle Fratellone, explained they used close to 500 pounds of gingerbread, 1,00 gumballs, along with 50 pounds of coconut for the snow.
"We're so excited to debut Gaylord Rockies first gingerbread mountain cabin here in the lobby. It's been six months of work and planning, and we finally finished it just last night at 5:00 p.m. We placed the final sour gumballs onto the tree, so very excited to debut it this morning," Fratellone said.
The pastry team has created gingerbread displays in years past, but Fratellone explained, 'this is the largest gingerbread house we've ever made at Gaylord Rockies resort.'
Our Maggy Wolanske visited the pastry kitchen to see the final preparations that went into bringing this culinary creation to life. Fratellone was busy piping intricate frosting snowflakes on a gingerbread wreath and using sugar syrup to make glass-like lanterns.
"There's a lot of planning that goes into this. We started back in July, walking the lobby space, working on designs, working out all the gingerbread math that it took to come up with what shingles need for the roof," said Fratellone. All that's a lot of fun, but my favorite part is the final decoration. When it all starts to come together, and all the personal details gets applied."
The cabin will be on display until January 1 in the resort's main lobby, and guests can smell the spices in the gingerbread dough. Fratellone shared the plans moving forward for this gingerbread cabin to become a yearly tradition.
"We plan to continue making this mountain cabin every single year, making it maybe a little bigger next year, adding some more elements to it, but it's really going to be incredible every single year to come," Fratellone said.
As the holidays quickly approach, Denver7 knows many of you may be taking out gingerbread kits and planning to create your own winter wonderland, so we asked Fratellone for any tips she may have.
"Take your time. Be patient. Make sure that those walls are fully dry and secure before you put the roof on. Maybe even let it set overnight before you put that roof on and put that extra weight on top," Fratellone said.
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