With all the coverage we here at Slashfood have been giving gingerbread men and gingerbread houses I thought it might be fun to search the web for Guinness World Records involving the favorite holiday flavor.Without doubt, the most impressive gingerbread record this year is Roger Pelcher's gingerbread house. The house - which was built at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. - stands just shy of 64 feet. Pelcher beat his previous record of 57 feet.
It took him and his team nine days to build the 1,496-square-foot ginger-scented, candy-laden mansion. Given its size and the fact that it includes a gingerbread factory complete with animated elves, I think it's fair to call it a mansion. The gargantuan confection contains 14,250 pounds of gingerbread, 4,750 pounds of icing and more than a ton of candy decorations. Hansel and Gretel eat your heart out.
I'm not sure why people like to make gingerbread creations of outlandish proportions in Minnessota, but they do. From Rochester comes the world's largest gingerbread man. The big guy weighs in at 466 pounds and was baked by the Gingerbread House Bakery. The bakery plans to bring it to the Mall of America to join Pelcher's gingerbread palace.
On the other side of the pond, Europeans have also embraced the holiday spirit with their own gigantic gingerbread creations. Sven Grumbach, a bakery owner from Rostock, has created an entire gingerbread village more than that shows what the east German city looked like before it was bombed in World War II. The Rostock replica contains hundreds of houses and spans more than 4,300 square feet. Grumbach's sweet city used 1,760 pounds of flour, 705 pounds of honey, 880 pounds of almonds and 175 pounds of raisins. He's hoping that the good folks at Guinness will give him the record for the largest gingerbread city.The oddest outsized gingerbread creation I came across comes from Belgium. It's not a house, a village or a man. It's a map. As part of the festivities to welcome Bulgaria and Romania into the European Union, a 10-foot-by-10-foot gingerbread and marzipan map of Europe has been created. Yes, it too, will try to garner aGuiness recognition.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-14-2006 @ 8:46PM
Jon said...
How long do you think? to consume all those ginger breads.. That would be another guinness world of records..
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12-14-2006 @ 9:22PM
Indigo Skye said...
Hi, Actually Give Kids The World, a non-profit resort for children with life-threatening illnesses who wish to visit Disney World, Universal, or SeaWorld, holds the World Record for the Largest Gingerbread Man at 684 Pounds.
http://www.gktw.org/press/20th_Anniversary-Recap.asp
So Rochester needs to think bigger!
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12-14-2006 @ 11:50PM
William said...
I should sue you guys for false advertising. I expected that we'd have a delectable holiday treat made with my favorite beer, based on the tag in my RSS reader. Oh well. At least I still have my muffins.
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