Massive gingerbread house tour at the Ritz Carlton Naples

What do you get when you combine 240 pounds of sugar, 391 pounds of icing and 60,000 pieces of candy? A life-size gingerbread house of course!

WINK News Anchor Lindey Sablan visited Executive Pastry Chef, Lerome Campbell and his team of 24 at the Ritz Carlton Naples to go over every candy-coated detail of this holiday tradition.

“We make the dough, we sheet cut all the bricks, and then we bake it. We let that sit until the carpenters are finished with the house when they turn it over to us,” said Campbell.

The colorful cottage takes Campbell and his team approximately three months to build. Decorated with chocolate-covered pretzels, Hershey bars, giant lollipops and roughly 1,500 bricks of gingerbread, the gingerbread house is ready for public touring.

Every detail matters as Campbell told WINK News that the door alone takes about two and a half days to construct.

When asked about how the building manages to stick together, Campbell informed WINK News about his technique.
   
“If your frosting is soft, it will fall apart,” said Campbell. “We’ll use chocolate to hold the house together first, and then we’ll go over it with the frosting.”

Touring the candy-studded house will start at $25 per family of four. Additional perks include pictures with Santa Claus, cookies and hot beverages for all ages.      

For more information on the gingerbread house and to book a tour, please refer to the website here.