As a former student of interior design and an aspiring junior designer at a prestigious firm in Toronto I had the opportunity to see some of the most beautiful homes of the city. I reviewed and renewed floor plans, meticulously placed furniture, poured over colour palettes, and was witness to the transformation from dark and cluttered to bright and beautiful. Occasionally I assisted on projects in which I saw homes rise from plans on paper to stately structures erected in stone, wood and glass.

Since then, my chosen career has obviously undergone a dramatic change and the medium in which I work is now decidedly edible compared to the former. However, my latest project resounds with notes from my past and I laboured over it with great satisfaction at the merging of two arts into one. Who would have thought building a gingerbread house could be so poetic?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was asked by the Kimberley Seldon Design Group to design a house for the 7th annual Habitat for Humanity Gingerbread House Build and jumped on the opportunity with enthusiasm. I knew immediately that the structure should be elegant, classic, but simple, considering the “client” I was designing for.

The cookie walls began to rise and the smell of chocolate and gingerbread filled my kitchen. Nothing could be more satisfying to me. The completed structure looks delicious enough to live in. This isn’t like the gingerbread activities we partook in as kids. This was a full-fledged structural confectionary design-build project and I executed it with delight. I have dubbed the property “Lemon Tree Manor”.

Speaking of gingerbread and all things Christmassy, I have noticed that the colourful autumn leaves are no longer covering the trees, but are strewn across every home owner’s lawn and that shopping centres are now openly admitting that Christmas shopping must begin yesterday or else you’ve already missed out on the best gifts. Tinsel is glittering on lamp posts, christmas lights are twinkling in more than one storefront display, and all we’re missing is the snow, although many of you probably aren’t really missing it, but rather dreading it (talk to the home owners who are currently raking leaves a.k.a clearing space for snow banks).

Well, hopefully you’re getting into the spirit of it and you won’t mind my mentioning that Gabriela Delworth (whom I mentioned in an earlier post) is hosting a five-day Marie De Fete on her website beginning November 18th. She’ll be featuring different inspiring artists’ work and stories each day and I was happy to oblige the request to include my macarons on the 19th. Look for new photos of Christmas inspired macaron flavours that you will be able to sample at the Market beginning in December.

This past weekend at the market I took an “au naturel” approach with the macarons. Brightly coloured pastries stepped aside for flavours that lent themselves to neutral coloured almond shells. Pistachios provided a subtle green tinge, ground espresso beans flecked white macaron shells, and hazelnuts dotted the domes of chestnut caramel filled cookies. The effect was lovely. Macarons need no embellishment to be simply beautiful.

I had several requests to bring back the raspberry macaron as soon as possible. One requestee was a 4-year-old blonde hair, blue eyed beauty who I simply cannot refuse. This coming weekend you can look forward to seeing raspberry, lemon poppyseed, and chocolate passionfruit macarons. Hope to see you there.