Can you guess how much work goes into building a gingerbread village? According to Brielle Fratellone, executive pastry chef for Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, over 300 hours between 24 team members.
To make the multi-building display, located in the property’s Mistletoe Village pop-up, Fratellone said the kitchen used 10 pounds of cinnamon, 75 pounds of shredded coconut, 50 pounds of powder sugar, and around 25 points of isomalt sugar, the key to making ice, glass, and other clear components.
The Gaylord Rockies pastry team started thinking about the gingerbread village all the way back in July. First the chefs design and submit a layout based on the theme. This year the convention center focused on The Polar Express, a classic tale written by Chris Van Allsburg in 1985. While the book remains a holiday staple, when Tom Hanks did the film adaptation in 2004, it launched the story into even more homes. Though none are gingerbread like the elf village at the Gaylord.
“The pastry team members are assigned to a least one house or building and they each are responsible for the overall design, assembly, and decoration,” said Fratellone. “This way each team member has an opportunity to showcase their creativity and pastry talents.”
Once the design has been approved, the team moves onto the model building phase, scaling and tweaking the houses using cardboard cutouts. Once everything matches and clicks, it’s time to start cutting out the gingerbread pieces.
After being sized, gingerbread gets wrapped and thrown into the freezer. To help maintain the integrity of the cookie over the six weeks on display, no eggs or butter are used. The idea, said the chef, isn’t to make it taste good, but make it sturdy enough to last. However, she added, gingerbread spice gets put into the batter so the whole thing exudes the aroma of fresh-baked holiday treats (step nearby the display and you’ll smell what we mean).
The houses, shops, and restaurants of the village mainly get connected with thick frosting. Next comes a slew of confections to decorate the display. The house windows consist of poured sugar and sprayed with white cocoa butter in order to give a snowy appearance. The mini bakery items and toys get hand-sculpted using sugar fondant. The display also includes a moving train, a clock tower, elf workshop, and north pole.
By the last few days, the team was up each night getting the display ready for the November 22 debut. Skillfully they piped frosting, placed peppermint candies, adjusted modeling chocolate elves, putt up the train, arranged chocolate-covered sunflower seeds as Christmas lights, propped up gingerbread reindeer, and more.
Overall the whole thing has over 700 pounds of gingerbread cookies, royal icing, peppermints, and candies. Then on top, that 75-pounds of coconut was sprinkled over the whole thing, coating the display in sweet snow.
Now, see it for yourself. The Gaylord Rockies Gingerbread Ski Village is open to the public in the Mistletoe Village now through January 1, 2025, details here. It doesn’t cost anything to enter the village and see the display and listen to carolores. Though you may want to round out the Polar Express ride by getting tickets to ICE!, which has over 17,000-square-feet of larger-than-life sculptures depicting scenes from the story.
For a glimpse inside the magic, check out the upcoming reel on Instagram and Facebook to see how the gingerbread village got made.
