A couple years ago, The Girlfriend and I thought it would be fun to build a gingerbread house together. Yes, I do know what a disturbingly sappy mental picture that forms, redolent of the nostalgic nonsense parents like to tell their children about the simple pleasures of their ancient youth. But it really was fun, and the project actually turned out fairly well. Our walls stood, our frosting icicles were properly proportioned to the house and appropriately delicate-looking, and our gumdrop bushes were delicious, er, that is, they looked nice. The only thing that didn’t quite work as we’d hoped was our frosting snowman, which refused to stand upright and ended up slumped over and rather tired-looking, like it was the end of the season and he was just about to succumb to the warming sun. (We dubbed him Melty and, oddly enough, grew so attached to his pathetic, blobby little form that we saved him after the house itself was gone; he now sits on a little shelf in Anne’s kitchen.)

As proud as we were of our one-room gingerbread shack, however, it was nothing compared to the amazing exhibition of baked-good architecture that was recently chronicled by a Seattle blogger named Jeff Barr. The exhibition was a benefit for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation; I think my favorite among these gingerbread landscapes is the recreation of London’s Tower Bridge. Go check it out!