Anna Polyviou is a pastry queen, known for her whimsical dessert creations. She's also the mastermind behind the gigantic gingerbread house that was unveiled today in Sydney.
This is the second year that Polyviou and her team of "elves" have made the house, which resides in the foyer of the Shangri La hotel.
Anna Mendoza / BuzzFeed
Made with 1500 kilograms of gingerbread dough, the 2.4 metre house is like something straight out of a fairytale.
"We wanted to do our own version of Hansel and Gretel, but in a five star hotel, and with an Australian twist, with lots of Australian lollies," Polyviou tells BuzzFeed Life.
Anna Mendoza / BuzzFeed
Besides the dough, Polyviou used over 300kg of royal icing and 200kg of lollies when constructing the house.
"We call it the lolly bag house, because we focus on Allen's lollies," says Polyviou. "I love all of them. I love the red frogs. I love the chico babies. I rip the head off, then rip the feet off, then eat the body."
Beyond taste, Polyviou uses Allen's for nostalgic reasons. "I think that’s the important thing about Christmas," she says. "It’s all those warming things that we grew up with."
Anna Mendoza / BuzzFeed
It took over two months to build the house.
Polyviou's engineering team take one month to build a framework. Then, it takes another month to make the dough, and cut the bricks out one by one before baking.
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