For the benefit of everyone trying to build a cake next year, I'm doing this one last blog entry

Gibside was a smashing day Simon... I still have the sunburn to prove it!
So sorry we had to take the cake away... our team members didn't want all that hard work to be demolished so quickly and we were hoping to get it displayed in Durham Cathedral itself!

Thank you to everyone who came down to our Alington House making and local food event on Saturday and especially to everyone who voted for us to come Second place on Sunday!

Special thanks go out to our local ingredient providers, we couldn't have done it without you - check out the ingredients blog to find out more about their lovely produce! 

What an epic task building the cathedral was... The humidity was a big factor in the leaning tower of Durham with all that softening of the gingerbread overnight including the outside icing decoration falling off. Sadly our tea-light batteries didn't last long enough either so not everyone got to see it lit up and our lovely boiled sweet windows mostly dissolved overnight with the sudden heatwave.

A sudden text at 7:50am on Sunday morning gave me a huge shock as our lovely cake making expert and driver- Michelle had fallen over, damaged her foot and had to go to hospital. 

Thank goodness for back up plans with such a huge cake- my lovely friend Cedeem offered to help us transport to the venue in her Landrover and it only just fit in!

Propped up with a few 'makeshift' icing bits in the morning (which was why it was looking a bit rougher than we had imagined- lack of materials or shops open at 10am on a Sunday morning) kept it together and the full structured fruitcake must have been the reason that the tower etc. didn't fall down on the car ride there. I could see it wobbling and melting all the way. Most on-edge car ride ever!

Everyone else's cakes looked so amazing, I really was love with those puffins and seals- so much hard work and you could tell everyone was enjoying the finale munching of all the lovely cakes.

Hope everyone is recovering post baking.
Look forward to seeing what everyone does next year!

Kayleigh