Edible Magic

Since the Montage Deer Valley opened its doors to the world four years ago, every holiday season, their world renowned Pastry Chef Raymond Lammers, and his team, bakes and builds an extravagant display of the modern day gingerbread house. Out of all of the Montage locations, this one in particular is the only one that is placed in a mountain setting, creating the most amazing and festive atmosphere during the holidays. The snow, the fireplaces, the mulled wine, the smell of gingerbread, all while being nestled in the mountains of Deer Valley…it’s something else. Walking through the Montage during this time of year will immediately bring out your inner little kid. “The holidays are what this building is built for,” says Dan Howard, director of public relations. “When the decorations go up, it just feels right.”

The unveiling of their now famous giant gingerbread house always takes place the weekend after Thanksgiving and is such a great way to get excited about the festivities to come. The looks on kids’ faces when they see it is completely priceless, and you’ll find yourself in just as much awe. The gingerbread house and the overall concept of it changes a little bit each year, but is always completely life size and built with 100 percent house-baked gingerbread panels with some special touches of royal icing and other amazing edible decorations. This year, their creation completely blew my mind. Picture a cozy living room, winter setting, snow falling peacefully outside, fireplace blazing, Christmas tree tinkling with lights, and shelves and shelves of books to read. Sounds pretty perfect right? Okay now, picture this same living room completely made out of gingerbread and chocolate. That is what I walked into, and I never wanted to leave.

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Yes, the animal heads on the wall are also made out of chocolate.  Here’s a close up:

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To put it in perspective, here is the amount of ingredients it took to make the gingerbread house:

500 pounds of flour

2 pounds of baking soda

4 pounds of ginger powder

4 pounds of cinnamon

2 pounds of cloves

2 pounds of nutmeg

135 pounds of butter

220 pounds of sugar

18 gallons of molasses

45 pounds corn syrup

540 eggs

It took a total of eight weeks and 4,000-plus  gingerbread panels by a team of eight people (with the help of many others) to build this magical creation. Biggest round of applause to them, well done this year!  I’ll be at home, turning my living room into a gingerbread living room.

I strongly suggest you go see it for yourself and spend a portion of your holidays at the Montage. You can’t help yourself, but to get excited for the holiday season here.

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JW Bennett
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