An elaborate three-foot-tall edible Halloween gingerbread house is on display at Charlee’s Comfort Kitchen in Manti. The dark cocoa gingerbread creation features white-chocolate bone railings, crumbly cake moss, and hand-molded sugar jack-o’-lanterns.
The 2.5-by-3.5-foot display sits on a Rice Krispies treat foundation and includes a steep slate-style gingerbread roof and a stained-glass sugar window. Visitors looking through the open ground-floor windows can see interior details such as sugar-paper wallpaper, silver-piped royal icing picture frames, and a miniature chocolate coffin with sugar-paste bones. Other interior elements include a fireplace with glowing sugar flames and a tiny throw rug decorated with small skulls.
The exterior landscape includes a miniature cemetery with handmade chocolate tombstones detailed with spiders, skulls, and eerie inscriptions. The scene is completed with white-chocolate bones and tiny jack-o’-lanterns. While nearly every part of the display is edible, the structure utilizes battery-operated lights to illuminate the scene.
Owner Charlee, a former executive pastry chef at a high-end ski resort in the Aspen area of Colorado, designed the display to explore a spooky Halloween theme. While Charlee previously created large gingerbread displays for Christmas during her time in Colorado, this project allows for a different style of gingerbread artistry.
Charlee’s Comfort Kitchen is also hosting a Halloween party from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31. The event is scheduled to feature food, drinks, prizes, and a costume contest. For more information regarding the party, individuals can call the business at 435-835-6500.
