When gingerbread houses start popping up, it’s safe to say the holidays have arrived. But what about a huge gingerbread fire truck, or a gingerbread rocket ship and a gingerbread Delicate Arch? For pastry chefs at Montage Deer Valley and Stein Eriksen Lodge, their annual gingerbread displays are an opportunity to put their creativity to the test.Montage Deer Valley At Montage, the goal is to build something Utah-inspired, said the hotel’s Executive Pastry Chef, Romie Fisher. This is true in all her pastries, incorporating native flavors like pine nuts, elderflower and local honey, and shaping her desserts like cherries, peaches, honeybees and dinosaur eggs.Last year, Montage’s gingerbread display was shaped like Arches National Park’s Delicate Arch, made with honeycomb-shaped ginger cookies and adorned with an all-chocolate, climbing Santa Claus rappelling from the top.Last year’s gingerbread display at Montage Deer Valley was a recreation of the Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, with an all-chocolate Santa rappelling from the top. This year the pastry team aims to go even bigger. Credit: Courtesy of Montage Deer ValleyAt the time, Fisher was the hotel’s lead chocolatier, and they were working on more of a time crunch. This year, she said, they started in late October with plenty of new ideas.“We’re definitely going to try to top (last year’s). I have a very good team this year, so we’re going to try to get a little bit more ambitious,” she said.She said the whole creation involves over 7,000 gingerbread cookies, 500 pounds of chocolate and 45 gallons of frosting. There will also be life-size elements — at least, child-size — featuring a miner, beekeeper, skier and paleontologist in the overall design to pay tribute to the area’s history, said Malia Robinson, the hotel’s marketing and public relations manager. The display will be revealed at Montage’s annual tree lighting event, this year scheduled for Nov. 30, said Robinson. As always, it’s a free event, she said.“We’re partnering with Primary Children’s with the Children’s Miracle Network down in Salt Lake this year for donations. And essentially it’s the tree lighting, they speak, we do the gingerbread reveal, then people can dine and there’s live music, so it’s just an evening of enjoyment,” she said.The gingerbread display at Montage Deer Valley will be up from Nov. 30 through Jan. 6, and there are plenty of other holiday-season events at the hotel. Visit their website, montage.com/deervalley/experiences/upcoming-events, to learn more.Stein Eriksen LodgeThe Stein Lodge gingerbread display is an annual tradition now in its 23rd year, with past creations including a Norwegian viking ship, a carousel and scenes from much-loved films like “Star Wars,” “Frozen” and “Harry Potter.”Even a 20-foot rocket ship, said the lodge’s Executive Pastry Chef Jeremy Garcia.In 2019, the Stein Eriksen Lodge gingerbread display was a 20-foot rocket ship. Credit: Park Record file photo by Tanzi PropstWorking with the smaller lobby in the Stein Eriksen Lodge, they have to get extra creative when it comes to preparing the gingerbread display, Garcia said. “We have a narrow window in which we have the availability of the lobby to get it all built and then done over the course of a couple days,” he said.They’ll decorate and stage most of the elements in advance, then work with their engineering team to construct it by their Christmas tree in the days after Thanksgiving and early December. Then, around New Years, they’ll take it down.Like Montage, the display uses staggering amounts of cookies and sugar, but what strikes Garcia the most is the amount of spices they’ll use in the gingerbread.“If you make a small batch of gingerbread cookies, you’re talking like a teaspoon of whatever. But we’re using like three cups of cinnamon,” he said with a laugh. “That’s what gives it that nice smell is putting all the spices in there and actually using real gingerbread cookies.”Garcia said the running tradition alongside Montage is especially fun this year with Fisher at the helm, a longtime friend and colleague. “Her and I are great friends, and so it’s a lot of fun to have a little bit of competition, but also that ability to assist with ideas,” Garcia said.Though still in sketch form, Garcia’s idea for the lodge’s display is whimsical like in years past and poses an engineering challenge. But he said there’s plenty of tricks to the trade at this point in his career.“You do it enough times, you’re like, ‘OK, this is how it’s going to work. We can hide this with whatever.’ And there’s some smoke and mirrors with some of it,” Garcia said.The public is always welcome in, and Garcia said by Deer Valley Resort’s opening day on Dec. 7, the display will be fully completed. “The best way to do it is, come up to the lodge, maybe grab a snack during après or something, and see the display there in the lobby,” he said.Learn more about the other holiday events at Stein Eriksen Lodge on their website: steinlodge.com/blog/holiday-activities-at-the-lodge.The post Two hotels ready their gingerbread displays to ring in the holiday season appeared first on Park Record.