By Heather McGinley

Staff Writer

What would you do with 1,600 pieces of neatly shaped gingerbread? If you were Maricris Farrington, a bartender at the Constant’s Wharf Bar and Grill at the Hilton Garden Inn, you would make a giant gingerbread house.

Farrington is the mastermind behind the giant gingerbread house currently sitting in the hotel’s lobby. This is her second year designing, baking, constructing and decorating a house to amuse patrons of the hotel and restaurant.

“I do it just for fun,” Farrington said. “I miss home at Christmas time, and I love doing this for everybody.”

Farrington said she was inspired by a pastry chef whom she worked with at another hotel. She watched the pastry chef make gingerbread houses each year at Christmas time, and she wanted to experiment with making a gingerbread house of her own.

Farrington did the baking for the project at home but actually assembled the gingerbread house at the hotel. Last year, Farrington did all of the building and decorating for the gingerbread house. This year, however, she had the assistance of Dave Rhon, an engineer at Planters Peanuts.

“This year’s is way better than last years,” Farrington said.

Rhon built the wooden base and the frame for the house, while Farrington designed and built the gingerbread house around the frame.

Farrington said that she used hot glue to make the house stick to the wooden base and to adhere other parts of the house.

“The gingerbread won’t stick with icing to the base,” she said.

This year’s house is modeled after a Colonial Williamsburg home, although Farrington says that the many of the patrons believe it looks like the hotel.

Farrington decorated the gingerbread with 100 Twizzlers, 300 Red Hot candies and 550 gumdrops.

Cleaning up the gingerbread house when the holidays are over will be easy, she said. Add a little water to the structure, and it will easily come apart.