In the classic fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel, the two children were lured into a beautiful gingerbread house in the forest, only to be trapped by the wicked witch inside. But this Christmas season, Vizagites have nothing to fear. This massive gingerbread house at Hotel Novotel is loaded with Christmas goodies and if you are lucky, you can also get to meet the good old man Santa Claus as well. More importantly, it’s edible too!
The hotel kick-started Christmas celebrations well in advance by unveiling an elaborately decked up gingerbread house made of 350 kgs edible products. The overpowering aroma of breads and cakes greet visitors to the hotel lobby where the gingerbread house will be kept till December 25. “It took five days for a team of five hotel staffs headed by bakery chef Tapas to make the fairytale gingerbread house. It is made up of gingerbread slabs and matang – a mix made up of egg white, sugar and cornflour. The team worked for nine hours daily to erect the gingerbread house, which is the biggest one made by the hotel,” said the hotel’s executive sous chef Rupesh.
Not to mention the whole lot of preparation that went into it. Chef Rupesh whipped out a list. “The massive gingerbread house is made up of 150 kg flour, 40 kg sugar, two kg ginger powder, 20 kg icing sugar, 30 kg egg white, 10 kg cornflour and cinnamon powder and baking powder,” he added. The walls of the gingerbread house are slim sheets of gingerbreads baked crisp, which have been worked with a plywood base to cement them together giving a grand look for the décor. The first-of-its-kind gingerbread house cum takeaway counter has plum cakes, puddings, ginger and cinnamon cookies, vanilla crescent and a host of Christmas gift hampers. The counter will be open from 8 a.m. till 11 p.m.
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From Tuesday onwards, Santa will step out of the gingerbread house and visit various schools and churches of the city distributing goodies till Christmas.