Sweet Construction: Famous Buildings and Structures in Gingerbread

Marilyn Pollack Naron is a baker with a vision. The author of the blog simmer till done created this beautifully impressive gingerbread Eiffel Tower for a friend to showcase in her store window. Needless to say, it attracted tons of camera-weilding customers.

This fantastic gingerbread recreation of the Weasley family house from the Harry Potter series might be an imaginary building, but it's known and recognized by children and adults alike all over the world.

This gingerbread masterpiece showcases Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral. It was created by pastry chef Troman Felizmenio in 2009. After nearly three months of work, Felizmenio completed the six-and-a-half-foot-high structure, which was featured in the lobby of The Ritz-Carlton in Moscow.

When pastry chef Mark Tasker got his hands on some gingerbread in 2007, he aimed to tackle an iconic New York City structure: the Empire State Building.

The Empire State Building isn't the only New York City skyscraper that's been built in gingerbread. This sweet recreation depicts the city's Chrysler Building.

Every year proud gingerbread construction workers descend on Asheville, North Carolina, to attend the annual Grove Park Inn National Gingerbread House Competition. In 2006, one of the entrants impressed visitors with this version of the Detroit skyline nestled inside a snow globe.

David Diffendorfer spent six years as the pastry chef at the Benson Hotel in Portland, Oregon. Every year he uses his talents to create a spectacular gingerbread creation. In 2009, his former employer got the sweet treatment with this replica of the hotel.

In 2007, David Diffendorfer paid homage to the Biltmore House and Gardens in gingerbread. Located in Asheville, North Carolina, the 250-room chateau that served as Diffendorfer's inspiration belonged to George Vanderbilt and was completed in 1895.

Even Socks the cat was impressed by this gingerbread version of the White House that was displayed in the real White House in 1993.

Le Parker Meridien, a hotel in New York City, has gingerbread creations on display in its atrium during the holiday season, including this sweet production of Egypt's well-known Sphinx created by Rolling Pin Productions with Aperitivo Restaurant Brooklyn. Passersby can opt to donate a dollar to vote for their favorite gingerbread structure on display, with proceeds benefiting City Harvest.

Japanese dessert bar Kyotofu's contribution to Le Parker Meridien's 2012 gingerbread collection is this version of Toji Tower, a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. The temple has a five-story pagoda and it's the highest wooden tower in Japan.

New York's Butterfly Bakeshop created a gingerbread Temple of Kukulka, a remnant of the Chichen Itza, an ancient city from the Mayan empire.

During superstorm Sandy, which battered parts of the East Coast in October 2012, a crane atop a building in midtown Manhattan was blown from its safe position, ultimately leading to road closures while workers tried to secure it. When asked to create a gingerbread masterpiece for Le Parker Meridien's "Landmarks Around the World" collection, the chef at NORMA'S, the hotel's eatery, chose the crane that drew awws and gasps during the storm.

Now you can claim you have seen the elusive Loch Ness Monster — at least an edible version of it. North End Grill presented this sugary version of Urquhart Castle, which overlooks Loch Ness in Scotland.

A small-scale gingerbread house just isn't enough for The Fairmont in San Francisco. Every year the hotel constructs a two-story display out of gingerbread bricks and gallons of royal icing. Now that's a gingerbread house.

At this year's Grove Park Inn National Gingerbread House Competition, Mary Figueroa, from Fishers, Indiana, took second place in the teen division for her Polar Express scene, which captures the train and the North Pole village.

Photographer Henry Hargreaves, along with food artist Caitlin Levin, recently created some incredible structures out of gingerbread for Art Basel Miami. All of their work for the event was recreations of famous museums around the world, including The Guggenheim, pictured here.

The Museum Aan de Stroom in Antwerp, Belgium — more commonly referred to as The MAS, is constructed here entirely out of edible materials, like gingerbread and clear candy for the glass. Hargreaves' black and white images can easily make viewers forget that they aren't looking at the real thing.

Among their collection of incredible museums from around the world, Henry Hargreaves and Caitlin were able to build a gingerbread version of the famed Tate Modern Museum in London.