Architecture

Texas lays claim to the world's largest gingerbread house

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Located at the Traditions Golf Club in Bryan Texas, the larger-than-life gingerbread house officially holds the new Guinness World Record
Located at the Traditions Golf Club in Bryan Texas, the larger-than-life gingerbread house officially holds the new Guinness World Record
It took 7,200 pounds (3,266 kg) of flour, 7,200 eggs, approximately 3,000 pounds (1,361 kg) of brown sugar, 1,800 pounds (816 kg) of butter to build the fairytale house
The gingerbread house will be on display until December 14th
The world's largest gingerbread house, lit up at night
The first gingerbread roof tiles go down
Surprisingly no animals have tried to take a bite out of the sugary building, however it has attracted bees on warmer days
The edible house required a building permit to go up and was built with traditional techniques, which include a solid foundation, wooden framing, and trusses
Building of the world's largest gingerbread house
Building of the world's largest gingerbread house
The final underlay of the house before the gingerbread bricks go up
The gingerbread house gets protected from the rain
The entire exterior is edible, with close to 4,000 12 x 17 inch (30.5 x 43.2cm) gingerbread bricks
This is what 7,200 pounds (3,266 kg) of flour looks like
View gallery - 13 images

Living up to its reputation of largeness, the state of Texas has now become home to the world's largest gingerbread house. Located at the Traditions Golf Club in the city of Bryan, the larger-than-life gingerbread house measures 39,201.8 cubic feet (1,110.1 cubic meters) and officially holds the new Guinness World Record. This defeats the record previously held by the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, with its 36,600 cubic foot (1,036.4 cubic meter) gingerbread house.

"The inspiration came from being a foodie and noticing the [Guinness] record at some point," General Manger of the Traditions Club, Bill Horton tells Gizmag. "Then I felt like this may be a fun way to build a venue that could create excitement and awareness to raise funds for the St. Joseph hospital."

It took 7,200 pounds (3,266 kg) of flour, 7,200 eggs, approximately 3,000 pounds (1,361 kg) of brown sugar, 1,800 pounds (816 kg) of butter and 22,304 pieces of candy to build the fairytale house, which measures 20.11 ft (6.12 m) high, 60 ft (18.3 m) wide and 42 ft (12.8 m) deep.

"We had more than 200 volunteers help on the project," says Horton. "The entire exterior is edible with close to 4,000 12 by 17 inch (30.5 by 43.2 cm) gingerbread bricks that were cooked by our chef and volunteers."

The gingerbread house will be on display until December 14th

The edible house required a building permit to go up and was built with traditional techniques, which include a solid foundation, wooden framing, and trusses. The interior of the house consists of two large rooms; one is used for storage and the other is decorated with candy canes and a fireplace where visitors can meet with Santa. Surprisingly no animals have tried to take a bite out of the sugary building, however it has attracted bees on warmer days.

The house will be on display until December 14th, and visitors can enter the house with a small donation of US$3 for adults and $2 for children. All proceeds will go to the St. Joseph Level II Trauma Center, with over $150,000 having been raised to date.

"We have no immediate plans to break any more records but that could very easily change in 5 minutes … I'm a bit crazy! Who knows?" concludes Horton.

Source: Traditions Club via Today

View gallery - 13 images
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4 comments
Wazz
Is it going to be eaten afterwards or is this just another complete waste of food?
Vytenis Sakalauskas
Covering a plywood constructions with a thin layer of gingerbread is the same as spray-painting it to look like a fairytale house.
BigGoofyGuy
I think it is way cool and it is for a very good cause.
I guess everything IS bigger in Texas.
lwesson
20.11 feet high? How odd this ( .11' ) ? I built a three story house in snowy Woodland Park, Colorado. We never ever divided a foot into tenths of a foot. That defeats the whole advantage of having the right TOOLS as in units of measure for the job. For example, 40 feet and 6 inches tall... And we never used Yards, nope not at all. A silly Tool to use in this case as in being far too big. Feet & Inches do very nicely. Santa says so. And no Gingerbread siding, but the stucco did look somewhat like that. It tasted terrible. Funny!
We made sure to have a nice runway for St. Nick and his sleigh team to land on and a chimney as well. Just do not fall off, as it is a long way to the bottom.