christine mcconnell's 5-foot-tall gingerbread castle is an architectural fortress of food

photographer, stylist, and baking enthusiast christine mcconnell has cooked up a 5-foot-tall gingerbread castle complete with candy glass windows, a gingerbread doorway, a sugar cookie guillotine and peanut butter snowballs. the multi-tiered construction, created for food.com, is an edible, architectural fortress of food. intricately crafted details — like miniature green wreaths, tiny window panes, and small-scale spires — add a crafty complexity to the scheme. placed throughout the castle, a collection of edible critters are each infused with mcconnell’s signature sense of whimsy. 

all images courtesy of christine mcconnell

mcconnell’s 5-foot-tall gingerbread castle is entirely edible — aside from the lights. the final piece presented on food.com is accompanied by recipes that describe how to make chocolate-peppermint reindeer cake or almond brownie pinecone critters. see below for images of the final castle, and a series of behind-the-scenes shots that show the making of the edible architectural creation.