WVU Dining has sweetened the holidays in a big way this year by constructing a life-sized gingerbread house, which was completed this week and is on display in the main lobby of the Erickson Alumni Center.

The 8-foot tall gingerbread house project began in late August and features a red gingerbread fireplace, a brown gingerbread roof, walls decorated by hand-piped icing and flying WV cookies. More than $500 worth of gumdrops, lollipops, ribbon and rope candy, candy canes and peppermint patties were used to accent the house.

The interior of the intricate gingerbread house also features smaller gingerbread houses crafted by WVU Dining student employees.

“It was great to have the students come together and contribute their own details to this project and make it feel more special to the University,” said Scott Spiker, Executive Chef at the Erickson Alumni Center.

The project took two weeks to assemble. Food Service Manager Aaron Jeffries and Food Service Worker Ruth Thomas contributed the majority of the work.

“There were some different challenges we faced we had to overcome compared to last year’s project,” Jeffries said. “Overall, the hard work and effort contributed to this project makes us proud to show it off to the WVU Alumni and the rest of our great state.”

Some interesting details about the construction process:

• More than 500 pounds of flour and 100 pounds of brown sugar were used to create the gingerbread shingles, siding, fireplace and chimney.
250 pounds of powdered sugar were need to create the icing “mortar.”

•�Authentic concrete molds were used to make the gingerbread siding appear like real wood and masonry.

•�WVU Dining worked with WVU Facilities Management to create a wood frame that was strong enough to support the gingerbread, candy and icing components.

Guests, students, staff and faculty are welcome to visit the Erickson Alumni Center to view and photograph the life-size gingerbread house between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

“Our life-sized gingerbread house invites guests to take photographs of its contents, but warming up next to the gingerbread fireplace is not advised,” Jeffries added.

-WVU-

lnf/11/17/16

CONTACT:� Scott Spiker, Executive Chef, Erickson Alumni Center
304.293.6131;�Scott.Spiker@mail.wvu.edu

OR

Bryan Jarrell, PR Manager,�WVU�Dining Services
304.293.0018;�Bryan.Jarrell@mail.wvu.edu

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