Bakery builds Hogwarts replica

As Potterheads will recall, “Reducio!” was a shrinking charm used in J. K. Rowling’s famous novel series—but this weekend, the muggle world of Edmonton saw a case of reducio, too.

A replica of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was on display Saturday at the locally owned Duchess Bakery.

Complete with sugary molding and candied roof tiles, the replica is exactly one-hundredth of the size of the set used by the Harry Potter films and took three months to complete.

“Every single thing you use here is edible, minus the table itself and the Styrofoam under the hills,” said bakery co-owner Garner Beggs.

“I challenge everybody out there doing gingerbread to keep the tradition alive and don’t cheat and use glue guns and things.”

Beggs said he’s built replicas before, including one in the likeness of Notre-Dame de Paris, but that Hogwarts presented other challenges.

“This one I learned a lot, a lot of technical things I’ve never taken on before like doing rounded curved shapes in the gingerbread.”

The cookie castle was built in support of a sock drive for Edmonton’s Bissell Centre, which works to eliminate poverty.

Every donor of a package of socks will receive a ballot to win a “demolition party” on Jan. 13. The winners will be invited to bring in their choice instrument to destroy Hogwarts.

“Or take a piece home,” Beggs said.

Event organizers hope to collect 1,000 pairs of socks for the Bissell Centre.