Gingerbread Masterpiece 2025: Coming Soon To The Benson Hotel in Portland

Gingerbread Masterpiece 2025 will follow this one from 2024. — Last year’s Gingerbread Masterpiece.

The Gingerbread Masterpiece 2025 reveal is just a few weeks away! This fun and creative event, focused on a giant gingerbread structure, is an annual holiday season highlight in Portland. Now in its 54th year, it will continue the tradition of being displayed in the lobby of the The Benson Hotel for all to see during the holidays. Head there in December to see what they’ve come up with this year!

Gingerbread Masterpiece 2025: From the Creative Mind of Chef David Diffendorfer

While this event has been going on for 54 years, Executive Chef David Diffendorfer has been creating the Gingerbread Masterpiece since 1994—that’s over 30 years. I wrote this about him last year:

“You can see some of Chef Diffendorfer’s past gingerbread masterpieces on the Gingerbread Cities website. He brings great skills to this project each year with a solid background in hand: He graduated from the Western Culinary Institute, where he taught baking and pastry for eight years; studied industrial design at the Art Institute of Portland; and earned a degree in geography.”

His Masterpieces

Each year is a different theme and always elaborate, a testament to Chef Diffendorfer’s talent and skills. It takes over 300 hours to put it together, and he uses pounds and pounds of gingerbread, marzipan, and chocolate to construct it. Royal icing is often used, too.

I like how he will dot the structure with little scarves and other objects that are really fun to find and come across. Below are 2023 and 2024—click to enlarge the photos to see the little scarves and even a coat hanging out in random places.

“The Gingerbread Unveiling has been a cherished tradition at The Benson for over five decades,” said Ryan Kunzer, General Manager. “Each year, Chef Diffendorfer and his team create something magical that brings the community together in the spirit of the season.”

What Inspired the 2025 Gingerbread Masterpiece

The Benson Hotel usually keeps the details about what building the Gingerbread Masterpiece is based on, but they offered a few tidbits recently:

“While this year’s gingerbread creation remains a carefully guarded secret, whispers from the kitchen suggest a theme filled with heart, courage, and a touch of magic.”

With that description, I’m going to guess Gingerbread Masterpiece 2025 has something to do with “The Wizard of Oz,” which features all of those things—in the Tin Man (heart), Cowardly Lion (courage), and Glinda the Good Witch (magic).

And if so, could his inspiration be the Royal Palace of Oz in the Emerald City? Or could it be based on Castle Rock in the real world, a 10,518-square-foot Gilded Age mansion in Garrison, NY. This is “storybook Hudson Highlands castle that may have served as the movie-set model for the Wicked Witch of the West’s castle in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’” The movie “Wicked for Good” also comes out on Friday, November 21.

Or maybe it’s something else entirely. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. It will be clear on December 2, details below.

Gingerbread Masterpiece 2025 Reveal Event

It’s always a big deal and a happy occasion to witness the reveal of the Gingerbread Masterpiece. This year the festivities will be on Tuesday, December 2. The party starts at 5pm with the unveiling at 6pm, all taking place in The Benson Hotel lobby.

They also do up the lobby, which is beautiful space in Portland. There will be “sights, sounds, and scents of the season” going on: live music, a hot chocolate station, children’s activities, and a “surprise” visit from Santa. I bet their big tree will be up by then, too.

I hope you can make some time to come to this fun and cherished event—see you there!

Gingerbread Masterpiece 2025 Reveal
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
5pm start, 6pm unveiling
The Benson Hotel, 309 SW Broadway, Portland
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