Grace Hunt’s showstopper of a window display for Christmas took a month to construct
Grace Eva Cakes makes Home Alone house
An award-winning cake designer and sculptor from Beverley is used to wowing with her magical Christmas window displays. From a beautiful scene of Santa sitting beside a roaring fire and checking off his list, to the “flying” scene from The Snowman, Grace Hunt’s creations always amaze the crowds that gather for her annual “reveal” ceremony.
This time, Grace has been amazed herself by the reaction to what she has conjured up for her Grace Eva Cakes shop, in North Bar Without, this Christmas. She has gone to town with a recreation of the Home Alone house, from the blockbuster comedy film that has been capturing imaginations at Christmas since it was first released in November 1990.
For the uninitiated (and there are a few out there), the house is central to the plot, with an eight-year-old Kevin McCallister accidentally being left behind when his family fly off from Chicago to France at Christmas. Two burglars hatch a plan to loot the place, believing it to be unoccupied, and it is up to Kevin to defend his family home, to hilarious effect.
Aficionados will appreciate the care Grace has gone into to capture the house and iconic moments from the movie. In a post on Instagram, where Grace describes herself as a cake engineer and award-winning designer of showstopping cakes and bespoke biscuits, she asked: “There are so many little details… can you spot them all?”
Grace’s clever details include:
- The dance scene in the window
- Kevin on his sledge
- The Wet Bandits
- The statue
- The tarantula
- The shovel
- The ‘M’ on the door handle
- Little Nero’s pizza delivery
- Wet Bandits’ Oh-Kay van
- Harry and Marv… feathers and all.
Grace was photographed with her cake art to show “truly how big a project it was”. She said of the response to the house sculpture, “it’s crazy”, with TV and radio as well as her followers going mad for it.
“Even the original realtor in America who sold the Home Alone house has liked it, commented and been in touch with me.” It took four weeks from start to finish for Grace to complete the house scene.
“The house is vanilla sponge with dark chocolate ganache. The van is cake as well.
“I’ve had to consider the winter sun on it, while making it; there is fondant and it’s mainly hand-painted. It took two solid weeks to do the decoration and detail.
“When I take the display out of the window I am going to cut it to prove it is cake.” Grace said: “Home Alone was released the month I was born and for my Christmas window, what better occasion than 35 years of the film being out to make the Home Alone house?
“I just didn’t expect the reaction I’ve had to it.” Grace, who launched her cake shop in the midst of the pandemic, created a reindeer for her first Christmas window, following it up with Santa in his chair and, a year later, The Snowman “flying” across her window.
“Christmas Chaos” was the subject of the 2023 display and last year it was the turn of a bunch of penguins, balancing on a ladder on top of an igloo (with a cute and cosy illuminated scene inside), to grace Grace’s window. “I usually create something out my head,” she said.
The Home Alone house, with a backdrop painted by her artist mum Tracy Savage, would have taken longer, she said, but she had to work to a shorter deadline because of all her Christmas orders, including luxury advent calendars made in collaboration with East Yorkshire artist Eleanor Tomlinson – of “the Queen and Paddington” fame – and beautiful biscuit collections.