November 25, 2022
Extreme Gingerbread Houses
It is here! The Friends of Wood Memorial Library & Museum's 12th Annual Gingerbread House Festival: Land of Sweets opened to the public today. (Festival details can be found on our website and Facebook page.)
There is always so much creativity and variety to the entries. As I was looking at this year's creations, I began wondering; "What is the largest Gingerbread House in the World?" Well, Google and Guinness answered that question pretty quickly, but it never occurred to me that there would also be a "smallest gingerbread house"! |
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The Largest - Build for Charity
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Image of World's largest Gingerbread House.
Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records.
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The largest gingerbread house in the world, was built in 2013 by Texas A&M's Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas. The gingerbread house’s measurements were an internal volume of 39,201.8 ft³, with a length of 60 ft, a width of 42 ft. and a height of 10.1 ft. at its tallest point. The home was so big that it could house a family of five!
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Image courtesy of New York Daily News
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According to Bill Horton, general manager of the Traditions Club, who spearheaded the project, 90% of all of the products needed were donated from lumber to electrical supplies to eggs, brown sugar, powdered sugar, nutmeg and ginger.
"Club members, bakers and volunteers constructed the home with nearly 3,000 pounds of brown sugar, 7,200 eggs, 7,200 pounds of flour and 1,800 pounds of butter — for a whopping 36 million calories." (Walsh)
"One of the criteria was that it had to be edible," Horton said. "We had a little bit of proof that the structure was edible because it was covered with bees. I reached down and picked up a piece and started chewing it." |
Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records.
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Admission fees were charged and the project raised more than $150,000, which was donated to help with the construction a new trauma center at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital.(Guinness World Records)
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The Smallest - Built for Science
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The gingerbread house, etched from silicon, sits atop a cap on the head of a winking snowman made from materials used in lithium-ion battery research, image courtesy of Phys website.
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The microscopic gingerbread house believed to be the smallest in the world was unveiled December 18, 2019 by Canadian researcher, Travis Casagrande.
The house is not made out of traditional gingerbread but silicon, and is decorated with a Christmas tree, a traditional holiday wreath and a Canadian flag welcome mat.
A researcher at McMaster University, Casagrande said he used a beam of charged gallium ions that acted like a sandblaster to create the sharply defined bricks and trim. Instead of building the house by adding materials, Casagrande cut silicon away, more like sculpting from a block of marble. (Delbert) |
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Together, the gingerbread house and miniature snowman are barely taller than the diameter of a human hair, image courtesy of Phys website.
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The house is actually sitting atop a cap on the head of tiny winking snowman, made from materials used in lithium-ion battery research. The pair of decorations, stacked one on top of the other, are barely taller than the diameter of a human hair.
"While the spirit of the new decorations is festive, the intention of the project," said Casagrande, "is to demonstrate the capabilities of the centre" and "stir scientific curiosity among the public." (phys org) |
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Sources used for this Musing are listed below.
*Delbert, Caroline, Just the Tiniest Li'l Gingerbread House in the World, Popular Mechanics website, December 20, 2019, accessed November 25, 2022
*For Canadian researcher, it's a microscopic Christmas, Phys.Org website, December 19, 2019, accessed November 25, 2022
*Guinness World Records, Largest gingerbread house for charity gets us in the Christmas spirit, Guinness World Records Limited 2022 website, December 11, 2013, accessed November 25, 2022
*Walsh, Michael, World's largest gingerbread house raises money for Texas trauma center, New York Daily News website, December 03, 2013, accessed November 25, 2022. |
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