This article was originally written by Charlie Fenton for SWNS — the U.K.’s largest independent news agency, providing globally relevant original, verified, and engaging content to the world’s leading media outlets.
Last month, we covered this year’s 35th anniversary of Home Alone — and now, we’re spotlighting a talented baker who re-created the house from the holiday movie as a stunning cake.
Every year since 2021, 35-year-old Grace Hunt has made a dessert for a festive window display at Grace Eva Cakes, her store in Beverley, a market town in Yorkshire, England. Previous displays have featured cake versions of a reindeer, Santa Claus, and an igloo with penguins. To commemorate the film, she baked, crafted, and hand-painted the Home Alone mansion, and the confection has proved a big attraction.
Released in 1990, the film tells the story of 8-year-old Kevin McCallister, played by Macaulay Culkin, who defends his Chicago home from burglars after he’s accidentally left alone on Christmas when his family leaves for a Paris vacation.
Hunt explained to SWNS that she chose this year’s cake theme not only because the movie turned 35 in November — the same month as her birthday — but also because it’s her “favorite film to watch” over the Christmas season.
The cake, a fondant-covered vanilla sponge with dark chocolate ganache, is 29 inches tall and 11.5 inches wide, and it sits as the focal point on a 32-inch board. Hunt also included the driveway of the house and the van belonging to Harry and Marv, the movie’s villains. She spent hours painting the entire cake, including each brick, roof slate, and window, before sprinkling it with icing sugar to create a snowy effect.
It takes “two people to carry,” Hunt said, noting that it took her about four weeks total to complete it, finding time here and there amid her busy schedule. “It was so fun to make. I love making these types of cakes. I’m so happy with the result.”
She continued, “The first part of the process is stacking and carving the cake, it was actually quite tricky carving, as I wanted it to be to scale. I then covered it with two layers of ganache, one to act as a crumb coat and the second to make sure it is nice and smooth.” She opted for ganache to keep the cake sturdy since it would be facing the winter sun in her shop window. The next step was covering it with fondant before she started decorating.
“I was in the shop until about 11 p.m. the day I painted the bricks,” Hunt said, adding that the hardest parts were painting the iconic “M” onto the tiny door handle and ensuring the railing she made using florist wire stayed in place. “There were times when I was closer to picking up the cake and chucking it against the wall, but I wanted to make sure it had all the details, as that brings out the magic.”
The baker also said she has had a couple of people “not believe” it’s made out of cake, so when it comes time to toss the creation (it’s made to be gazed at, not eaten), Hunt plans to “cut it open to prove it is, in fact, cake.” But for now, she’s going to keep it in the window for as long as possible.
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