You can apply any number of adjectives to French Lick
Springs Hotel. Beautiful. Historic. Mysterious. Distinct.
Now we can add a new one: Delicious.
One of our favorite holiday traditions here at the resort
has a new twist this year, as in place of the enormous gingerbread house
displayed in the upper level of the Event Center — in the past it’s been one of
the biggest gingerbread houses in the entire Midwest — we’re rolling out a
gingerbread hotel.
Our hotel.
The resort’s pastry team has been working at a feverish pace
the last few days to apply to bring a gingerbread replica of French Lick
Springs Hotel to life. The creation will be displayed in the Event Center
starting this weekend and running throughout the resort’s entire 50 Days of Lights, which run from November 16 to January 6.
The gingerbread hotel is still crafted the same way as the
gingerbread houses from prior years, as everything you’ll see on the exterior
is edible — from the real gingerbread made from scratch in the bakery, to the
sugary stained-glass windows and snowflakes and other adornments that make it
sparkle.
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| The cardboard shell of the hotel, complete with cutouts of the gingerbread hotel's 264 windows. |
Dalyn Roney is our pastry chef and the mastermind behind the
annual gingerbread project, and after last year’s grand Tudor-style gingerbread
house (“my favorite house ever,” by her assessment) she wondered how can we possibly top this? Plus, with
the resort continually breaking business records this year, the bakery staff
has been kept busier tending to guest needs. And the gingerbread house is their
“side” project anyway, if you can consider something that’s taken 500-600
combined work hours a side project.
So all that prompted the push to create something new.
It’s still a feat of architecture and craftsmanship that
started with translating Google Earth satellite imaging of the hotel into a
5-foot-long scale model. This is just the main front section of the hotel, as
it appeared from about 1898 to 1905 before various other wings of the hotel
were built on.
You’ll notice the tri-colored windows with the stained-glass
effect (clear windows would just be kinda boring, after all), and the
gingerbread is dark brown just as a reminder to guests who pass by that it’s a
real gingerbread house – sometimes it blends into the landscape since that area
of the Event Center is bustling with Christmas decorations.
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| The gingerbread process takes shape, from the chunks of pre-baked dough, to baking and shaping the sections of the hotel, to adding the colored sugar for the windows. |
But that distinct French Lick Springs Hotel look is still
unmistakable, complete with the middle terrace and the octagonal shaped rooms
that protrude from both ends of the hotel.
It’s still been hours upon hours of work, but it’s all what
makes the end product so satisfyingly thrilling.
“It’s been a challenge all around, but that’s why I love it
here. That’s why I’m here,” Dalyn says.
“We wanted to give people something that I’m sure they’ve
never seen before. And still fill it with lights and fill it with magic, and
there are going to be so be so many other things going on this season with the
new light show and other things. I hope everyone will keep finding something
new to enjoy.”
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| Candy holly and snowflakes are yet to be added among the scores of decorations (all edible) that go on the gingerbread hotel. |