In 2013, a group in Texas broke the Guinness World Record by constructing the largest gingerbread house. Located in Bryan, Texas this house is about the size of a tennis court. Folks were able to walk through the family of five home and meet Santa while inside. Imagine walking through an edible house, that's worthy of your bucket list! The house isn't light on the calories though, with 35,823,400 to be exact.
The house, built by the Texas A&M Traditions Club with donations and help from the community, was ready just in time for Christmas in the record attempt. And if that couldn't get any better, all of the profits made went to St. Joseph's Hospital, specifically the Level II Trauma Center. That is true Christmas spirit! This larger-than-life creation, and it is located in Texas, so of course it's big, measures 39,201.8 cubic feet defeating the previous Guinness World Record holder which was in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota that measured 36,000 cubic feet.
Building the house required hard work and a lot of hands. More than 200 volunteers, as well as the chef, mixed and baked around 4,000 12 by 17-inch gingerbread bricks. All of the help brought a variety of people with different backgrounds together: electricians, roofers, chefs, architects, designers, etc to construct this amazing design. When it comes to building the biggest gingerbread house, you can see it takes a community.
Because it was for a remarkable cause to benefit the St. Joseph health system, it makes this world record even sweeter. The previous record was held for seven years until these Texans erected this fantastic holiday tourist attraction for a good cause. Take a look at this time-lapse video of the house going up. You can just feel the community spirit.
The gingerbread house, which required a building permit to go up, was traditionally built including a solid foundation, wood framing and trusses. The interior has two large rooms, two chimneys, a fireplace and candy stained glass windows.
So what exactly do you need to make a gingerbread house this huge? You'll need about 1,800 pounds of butter, 7,200 eggs, 7,200 pounds of flour, and 2,925 pounds of brown sugar. You will also need spices like ginger and cinnamon and about 225 gallons of molasses. And don't forget about the thousands of pounds of royal icing and 22,304 pieces of candy. No wonder this recipe is nearly 36 million calories!
