The gingerbread house: constructing a holiday tradition

Hundreds of pounds of gingerbread go onto French Lick Resort's annual
gingerbread house, one of the largest of its kind in the Midwest. The
gingerbread house goes on display starting Nov. 10 and will be up all
throughout the resort's 50 Days of Lights celebration.

No offense to you, filet mignon and chicken cordon bleu – you’re delicious and all – but you just can’t generate the type of buzz that your sweet, spiced counterpart is able to.

That type of mystique is reserved for gingerbread – specifically, the roughly 500 pounds of it that are the foundation for one of French Lick Resort’s most cherished holiday attractions that’ll soon be rolled out once again. The gingerbread house has become a tradition over the past decade, and this year’s version will be unveiled Friday, Nov. 10, in the Event Center at French Lick Springs Hotel for display throughout the resort’s 50 Daysof Lights holiday celebration.

This sweet palace is a serious undertaking – at 6 by 7 feet wide and 8 feet tall, “to our knowledge, this is the largest gingerbread house in Indiana, possibly this part of the Midwest,” said Dalyn Roney, the French Lick Resort sous chef who’s the mastermind of the project loaded with complexities.

It’s part art project; part science experiment. It requires architecture research and kitchen know-how. At times, it literally keeps Roney up at night – either in terms of working overtime to complete it, or as she brainstorms new ideas or problem-solving solutions. Yet it’s also “that little reward at the end of each year,” as Roney calls it, and a richly satisfying creation she can’t wait to share with the world.

Dalyn Roney, the mastermind behind the
gingerbread house, prepares sheets upon
sheets of gingerbread in a range of colors. 

“That passion and excitement, that sense of discovery and invention, that is something that’s unique to pastry,” Roney said. “Not to say you don’t have creativity in culinary, but when you’re able to make art out of something edible, it’s a very visceral, passionate way to connect with other people. That’s the purpose of the gingerbread house. It evokes emotions of doing these types of things as a child, and family traditions. It really captures that sense of wonderment that we want to showcase as a resort.”

And, yes, if you were wondering: Everything you see on the house’s exterior is edible and homemade. (It’s all supported by an infrastructure and a wood frame that can be reused year to year.)

Gotta start with the gingerbread: all made from scratch (none of that boxed mix nonsense), and in a couple different shades for this year’s house with blond gingerbread (made with honey instead of molasses) and a regular dark gingerbread like the kind you’d make and eat at home. Roney follows the gingerbread recipe to a T, complete with all the ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; last year’s house used 10 pounds of spices in addition to 300 eggs and more than 240 pounds of flour and 350 pounds of sugar.

Icing, fondant, chocolate, sanding sugar (the sparkly stuff) and sculpted sugar complete the other adornments on and around the house such as the bells and snowflakes on the house and the trees and lawn ornaments in the snow-covered “yard.” None of the candy adornments are store-bought, and the fact everything is homemade adds practical application beyond a holiday display that’s merely decorative.

Shingles on the roof were done in six shades of red, and bricks
on the house await icing to fill in the cracks.

“Skills that we learn on the gingerbread house we can apply to other points throughout the year,” Roney said, such as the flowery decorations that go on a wedding cake or the majestic sugar-sculpted Easter basket featured on display at the resort’s Easter brunch earlier this year.

Roney and her crew of helpers totaled more than 600 hours of labor on last year’s gingerbread house, but this year they're keeping it to about 350 hours over the course of 30 days since each year they’re able to make the process more streamlined and collaborative. Still, during the resort’s hectic holiday season, Roney works between 10 and 16 hours daily, and much of her work on the gingerbread house is completed on her days off when she comes into the kitchen to put in more overtime.

But for her, it’s a labor of love that feeds her knack for creativity and eye for detail. Roney is in her third year heading up the gingerbread house project and for the sake of variety, her aim to construct a different style house each year. Last year was a Victorian look. This year it’s a Tudor-style home. As if she were hunting for an actual house, some of her kitchen space is scattered with printouts of different Tudor houses, with their exposed beams and gables and lattice-patterned windows.

The exterior of the house is mostly complete and awaits final touches and decorations.

“I’m from Indianapolis and my father worked in Broad Ripple, so every time we would go through Broad Ripple, we would always pass these really cool houses with so much distinct character, which is one thing I love about Orange County since I moved down here. It has that historic gravitas that you get from historic homes,” she said. “So that’s why I want to do a different style of historic home every year.”

Like any house, the gingerbread home has is cracks and dents and imperfections. And the creator is OK with that.

“People have been known to to nibble on our gingerbread house, or they’ll walk up to it and be like, ‘Is that real?’ and snap something off and tuck it in a corner and I have to go find it,” Roney said with a laugh, and she usually passes by the gingerbread house daily at the start of each holiday season to check on things that need mended.

Last year's gingerbread house was a Victorian style home, and
this year's version will be a Tudor style house.

Also in the works for this year’s house are the tiny seek-and-find items that guests are challenged to find on the house. In the past, things like a tiny mouse, elephant and Elf on the Shelf have been hidden for people to find. This year, Roney has a pop culture theme in the works for the visual treasure hunt.

One thing she doesn’t have to worry about it is enticing an audience to come get a glimpse. Their noses lead them to it. Roney found that the gingerbread house luckily happens to be displayed where a couple ventilation systems cross paths – thus sending the aroma wafting all through the Event Center and hotel halls.

“That’s what happens when you have this much gingerbread in one place,” she said with a chuckle.

Check out the sublime scent and sights of the finished product during the Christmas season, and stick around for the range of holiday activities offered within French Lick Resort’s 50 Days of Lights.