Five-hundred pounds of gingerbread. Two-hundred-twenty-five pounds of sugar. Sixty pounds of frosting. Five gallons of egg whites.

All of it stacked 10 feet high on a steel frame that was designed to look like it could fall apart any second.

If you’re the people in charge of making that monstrosity, the annual holiday gingerbread house inside Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion is as scary as it gets.

“It is a freaky, twisted, weird house,” said Brian Sandahl, who, for 15 years, has helped bring the monster to life. Sandahl is Disney’s senior art director of creative development, and the gingerbread house is just one of his holiday responsibilities. “Oh my God, that thing is 10 feet tall. We try to make it pretty huge. It needs to be that impressive.”

This year’s gingerbread house, which teeters on the long table in the grand ballroom of the Haunted Mansion, took nine months to design, bake and assemble. More than 20 artists and bakers worked on the “House of Cards.” If you’re passing in your doom buggy on the Haunted Mansion ride, you might not notice the tiny touches that make the gingerbread display special.

It is surrounded by gingerbread zombies. Hovering over the top are black bats, which, the story goes, have flown the cards into the Haunted Mansion. Gingerbread smell is pumped into the ride during the holidays.

“It is amazing the amount of people it takes to put this together,” Sandahl said.

Sandahl is in charge of the myriad pumpkin designs around Disneyland. He’s the art director for the Christmas Parade. And he designed the “Jingle Cruise,” which transforms the Jungle Cruise ride during the holidays. He also goes by “The Pumpkin King.”

The gingerbread house, which is edible, was created in Disney’s Central Bakery, a giant kitchen adjacent to Disneyland.

“We all look forward to smelling the gingerbread,” said Pastry Chef Sujatha Sownderraj. “It gets us in the holiday mood.”

The gingerbread house is so big, it has to be made in an area outside the bakery. It was transported in sections by truck to the Haunted Mansion, where it was lowered into the ride via elevator.

“We are worried when it moves,” Sownderraj said. “So we follow it and fix it when it cracks.”