It took Lynn Nolan 387 hours to create, but she built her home village of Youlgrave, in Derbyshire’s Peak District, entirely out of Christmas cake to raise funds for a new church roof.

Retired florist Nolan sculpted 16 buildings out of ingredients donated entirely by the people of the village. The whole thing will be auctioned off on 15 December to raise funds for the restoration of All Saints Church, which is itself part of the cakey creation.

Inside each building are fairy lights, and the butchers and bakers even have their goods on display in the windows in miniature form.

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Powered by Cincopa Video Playlist for Business solution.BB Cake villageLynn Nolan built her home village completely out of cake to raise funds for a new church rooffocallength 22flash 9cameramake Canonheight 638fnumber 4exposuretime 0.01camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Lighoriginaldate 11/21/2016 6:03:05 PMwidth 1000cameramodel Canon EOS 7Dfocallength 30flash 9cameramake Canonheight 667fnumber 4.5exposuretime 0.01camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Lighoriginaldate 11/21/2016 6:01:53 PMwidth 1000cameramodel Canon EOS 7Dfocallength 28flash 9cameramake Canonheight 667fnumber 4.5exposuretime 0.01camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Lighoriginaldate 11/21/2016 6:06:33 PMwidth 1000cameramodel Canon EOS 7Dfocallength 26flash 9cameramake Canonheight 667fnumber 4.5exposuretime 0.01camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Lighoriginaldate 11/21/2016 6:05:37 PMwidth 1000cameramodel Canon EOS 7Dfocallength 17flash 9cameramake Canonheight 667fnumber 4exposuretime 0.01camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Lighoriginaldate 11/21/2016 5:58:38 PMwidth 1000cameramodel Canon EOS 7Dfocallength 17flash 16cameramake Canonheight 667fnumber 4exposuretime 0.02camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Lighoriginaldate 11/21/2016 5:55:49 PMwidth 1000cameramodel Canon EOS 7Dfocallength 26flash 9cameramake Canonheight 667fnumber 4.5exposuretime 0.02camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Lighoriginaldate 11/21/2016 5:56:40 PMwidth 1000cameramodel Canon EOS 7Dfocallength 41flash 9cameramake Canonheight 667fnumber 5exposuretime 0.01camerasoftware Adobe Photoshop Lighoriginaldate 11/21/2016 6:02:09 PMwidth 1000cameramodel Canon EOS 7D

Work started on the cakes in June, but the good news is the entire thing is edible: “They’re all doused in whisky, which both preserves it and makes it more delicious!” Nolan told British Baker.

Earlier this year Nolan also created Beatrix Potter’s Cumbria home, Hill Top, for a friend’s wedding: “He hasn’t eaten it yet as he said it’s too precious – it’s standing on the sideboard in his house.”

Word of the village creation has spread quickly and, on the morning that Nolan spoke to British Baker, someone had left a cheque in the church for £1,000, much to her surprise.

She said the school was her least favourite bit to reconstruct, “simply because the school roof is in fact dipped and goes in many different directions – and they’re all ‘olde worlde’ buildings in the village, but that’s the worst”.

Nolan added that she felt as though they had a little help from above, as well as from the village: “Did we have help from somewhere? Was it divine intervention? The ingredients we were generously given made exactly the right amount of cake to put together the village. I like to think that we were helped.”

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