Halloween Treat!

What’s Halloween without at least one spooky (and nostalgic) trip through the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland park?

From Halloween through the holiday season the mansion is decked out in a “The Nightmare Before Christmas” motif for Haunted Mansion Holiday. One of the coolest highlights has got to be the haunted gingerbread house in the mansion’s ballroom. It’s been a fixture since 2001. This year’s design, “Haunted Mansion Tombstone Cake,” is six feet high and four feet wide. (There’s a new design every year.)

For the first time ever the “house” will have animated projections. The projectors are such a new technology that there are only a few in the United States, and some are here at our very own Haunted Mansion! It took three chefs, a team of electricians, engineers and designers to create the tasty (and creepy) “tombstone cake.” And although the house looks decorated with candy, it’s not. All the decorations are actually created from fondant and royal icing.

And yes, it’s haunted. Really. Every year after the gingerbread house is installed and everyone goes home, a gingerbread shingle disappears. I guess one of the 999 ghosts has a hankering for gingerbread. Here are some other fun facts:

• It took 3 ½ weeks and a total of 213 hours to build
• It’s made of 60lbs of fondant
• 30lbs of chocolate (used as glue)
• 50lbs of royal icing
• 500lbs of gingerbread
• The scent of gingerbread is piped into the guest corridor

Enjoy this video of the making of the “Haunted Mansion Tombstone Cake.” Maybe it will give you a few ideas for your own creation.