By Kate Jackson

If you go down to the Town Hall today, you’re sure of a big surprise. Tucked away in the Town Hall’s City Gallery you’ll find a miniature village, made entirely from gingerbread and icing.

Featuring prominent Melbourne landmarks such as the MCG, the Arts Centre and of course the Town Hall itself, the Gingerbread Village is a sight to bring out the inner child in every adult.

The contents of the village include:

120 kg of gingerbread
90 kg of royal icing
24 kg of marzipan and fondant sugar
20 litres of chocolate syrup

Baking and building the village took 800 hours over two months. A team including 30 Holmesglen TAFE students, TAFE teachers, and volunteers from Melbourne hotels toiled under the watchful eye of Epicure’s Chef de Cuisine – Pastry, Deniz Karaca.

When asked about the challenges of creating the village, Deniz replied, ‘putting the train in was the biggest’.

With almost 30 metres of track, spanning three levels and crossing its own gingerbread viaduct, it’s little wonder.

A Christmas market

Santa arrives

The Epicure Gingerbread Village is now on show at the City Gallery until 24 December 2011. Opening times are from 11am to 6pm daily.

Proceeds from a gold coin donation will go to the Starlight Children’s Foundation towards the Make a Wish program. You can also purchase unique gingerbread Christmas gifts.