Virginia Tech Chef Builds Extravagant Gingerbread House for the Holiday Season

 

Students and visitors dining at Virginia Tech’s West End Market Dining Center have been enjoying a special holiday treat. Since Thanksgiving break, Executive Chef Mark Bratton and his culinary staff have been constructing a giant gingerbread house for display in the dining area.

Built in the style of an English Tudor cottage, the nearly 300-pound structure stands 4 feet tall and 3 feet by 4 feet around, and consists exclusively of edible ingredients. Nestled in a mouth-watering landscape of piped-frosting evergreen trees, candy cane street lamps, and a fence of chocolate-covered pretzels, the cottage even features a sugar gum-paste snowman and stand-alone “VT” yard sign.

To complete the house, Bratton employed over 100 pounds of icing, 75 pounds of gingerbread, and 25 pounds of candy. The translucent “stained-glass” windows, which are lighted internally, were made from more than 20 pounds of pink-tinted poured sugar.

Bratton confessed his love for making gingerbread houses, and said he hopes this one will help to take students’ focus off of their worldly troubles and remind them of the lighter side of the holidays.

The gingerbread house will be on display until the end of the semester when West End Market closes for winter break. After closing, the dining center plans to donate the gingerbread house to a local retirement home so that the residents there can also enjoy the holiday decoration and the cheerfulness it brings.

 

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