A Christmas Gingerbread Wonderland at the Sheraton Grand

The Christmas 2015 Gingerbread Wonderland has been unveiled at the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa. This has become an annual event, where a team of chefs spend around six weeks designing and creating a striking festive display made out of gingerbread, marzipan, icing sugar and boiled sugar.

The tradition of making decorated gingerbread houses started in Germany in the early 1800s. According to researchers, the first gingerbread houses were the result of the well-known Brothers Grimm fairytale Hansel and Gretel. After this book was published, German bakers began creating ornamented fairytale houses of lebkuchen (gingerbread), which became popular during Christmas.

In modern times the tradition has continued in certain parts of Europe. In Germany the markets sell decorated gingerbread before Christmas and the making of gingerbread houses is symbolic.

The Sheraton Grand takes great delight in creating its very own gingerbread village and this year’s team of Chefs - Todd Ford, Elina Norbuta and Christiane Franz – used 27kg of gingerbread to create their display which features villagers, a castle, nine houses, a church, a clock tower, a ferris wheel, an ice skating rink and 15 Christmas trees. They were decorated with 18,600g of icing sugar and completed with an array of fairy lights.

This special display will be viewed by thousands of guests and customers who visit the Sheraton Grand to experience a whirlwind of Christmas celebrations throughout the festive season. This year, the city-centre property is already expecting 1,259 guests to join their Christmas party nights in the run up to December 25th, with another 1,441 booked in for festive dining groups in One Square.

The chefs will bake 720 Christmas puddings over the season, and on Christmas Day itself the team will welcome more than 534 guests for Christmas lunch in One Square and the Edinburgh Suite, as well as 94 excited children who will be eager to meet Santa Claus!

It is also estimated that over 85 bottles of Champagne are set to be popped open this Christmas Day to celebrate this special time of year, spent with family and friends at the Sheraton Grand.

To view the range of festive celebrations available at the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa please refer to: http://www.sheratonedinburgh.co.uk/en/christmas-new-year-edinburgh