Grand Central gingerbread hotel

This year Executive Chef Zoltan Szabo and his creative team of chefs have spent 104 hours to replicate Grand Central Hotel out of gingerbread!  

Using 114lbs of gingerbread and 35lbs of icing sugar, the gingerbread hotel has caused quite a stir in the hotel lobby (it even has a wee working train running around it) – and we’ve loved seeing all of your fantastic photos.

Would you like to have a go at making some gingerbread? Chef Zoltan has shared his very own recipe below – don’t forget to take snaps of your creations and tag us on social media!

Chef Zoltan’s gingerbread

Ingredients

500g plain flour
150g unsalted butter
1 tbsp all spice
1 tbsp cinnamon
240g light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
30g honey
80g golden syrup

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
2. Melt the butter, sugar, syrup and honey together in a pan, then set aside and leave to cool.
3. Meanwhile, mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the eggs and butter syrup and mix well. If the mixture is too dry, add a splash of water.
4. Roll the gingerbread out to 5mm, then cut into shapes and bake until golden (about 10-12 minutes).
5. Leave to cool on a wire rack before decorating.