Life size gingerbread house - PHOTO

A life-size gingerbread house has been put on display for the holidays in San Francisco, and it's every child's - and adult's - fantasy.Constructed with 7,500 gingerbread bricks, 1,600lbs of icing and nearly two tons of candy, the gingerbread house at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel is an annual tradition that draws hundreds of yearly visitors to marvel at its edible grandeur.The hotel's PR director Melissa Farrar told Houzz.com that it may be the ultimate playhouse for kids, but it's the grown-ups who seem to be sneaking bites out of the construction.'While we don't condone people eating the house, it happens,' she said. 'The funniest part is that much of the missing icing, candies and even bricks are at adult height. This house brings out the kid in everyone.'The house has two floors, is 23 feet wide, 22 feet high and is stuck together entirely with icing.It was designed with a balcony, arched windows and candy cane columns as a nod to San Francisco's Victorian-era architecture.Visitors can walk through the lower level of the house, which opens up onto the hotel's restaurant. The room is also decorated with a model train and Santa's workshop.According to Houzz.com, it took the culinary team at the hotel around 600 hours to mix, bake and cool the gingerbread and candy before assembling the house.The actual construction and decorating took 500 hours, broke nine rubber spatulas and required 118 piping bags.Next to the house is the hotel's ornately decorated 23-foot-tall Christmas tree, adorned with ornaments, lights and presents around its trunk.While the gingerbread house is just as large as it is every holiday season, this year it boasts the addition of a 'doghouse', also made entirely of real gingerbread.This was constructed out of 90lbs of gingerbread pieces shaped like both bricks and bones.It was apparently made in honor of Gentleman Norman, the hotel's mascot VIP (Very Important Pomeranian).According to Ms Farrar, the doghouse is not only a festive spectacle to admire, but it also serves a second purpose.'Every day our pastry team is out there maintaining fixes, and that's fine with us,' she said of visitors' tendencies to sneak a taste of the gingerbread.'We joke that those caught snacking on the house will be put in the nearby doghouse.'The gingerbread house and doghouse will be on display at the Fairmont Hotel through January 1.(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az