Sweet charity

The other day I had a Facebook message from a friend asking whether she had correctly identified me in The Pretty Hunter blog. Ah yes, that'll be me putting waaay too much effort into icing a gingerbread cookie. Well, it was all for charity. Great Ormond Street to be exact.

This message reminded me that I've been awfully slack at recording that particular event, which actually took place quite a while ago now. So here goes:

At the beginning of June, the office was a-buzz about a local event: the Incredible Edible Gingerbread House at the Brunswick Centre built by Alma-nac Collective Architecture. We were promised an actual life-sized gingerbread house complete with chocolate furniture, nibble-able wall tiles and lickable curtains - how could we resist?

So off we stomped to the Brunswick:

But oh dear, it was a little more crowded than we thought:

The queue seemed to stretch on forever, far longer than our little lunch break would allow.. After some loitering, I finally mustered the courage to chat to one of the PR ladies on the door and gush on about how we were from an innovation research company etc etc and proffering a business card in a super cheerful manner. Miraculously, she then proceeded to let us in! How's that for blagging, erm I mean *marketing* skills??

And what an awesome sight it was (note that each red balloon was held down by a hot cross bun - genius!):

Complete with meringue clouds:

Edible curtains:

Munchable wall-tiles:

And a sweet shrubbery:

The whole contraption opened a bit like a doll's house.

There were also cake-acious borders as well as edible mushrooms and what looked like a large chocolate catapillar making it way up a mound of croissants. Now that's even spacier than 'Alice in Wonderland' surely?

All around the house was a frenzy of activity with various groups of children being entertained by host Shirley Bassett (haw haw) or one of her friends.

Here a group are treated to a story from the 'Gingerbread Journal':

Shirley on form:

A guided tour (unfortunately grown-ups weren't allowed too close - boo!):

Before leaving we all had a go at icing a gingerbread item. Apparently Lily Vanilli was on hand to instruct icing classes later on - rather an odd choice perhaps, as the last time I heard about her she was making Halloween horror cakes and marketing her book: 'A Zombie Ate my Cupcake'. Anyway, my colleague K was particularly pleased with his tie:

The house itself was just amazing. Such attention to detail and sheer inventiveness! Sadly some of the surroundings of the house were not so inspiring.. It could possibly have done with a couple of rolls of plastic grass to cover the concrete flooring.

Still, a very cool experience, and I hear that over £5,000 was raised for GOSH. Now that's what I call sweet charity ;)