More than 30 teams competed in this year’s AIA Gingerbread Build-Off, the seventh annual. Here’s the first runner-up: English + Associates’ Buddha Mountain. The Buddha was cast on-site out of candy melts and sprayed with gold icing, the temple roof was made of sunflower seeds, the chakra aura mosaic behind him was made from chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, monks were crafted from fondant and trees were made from rosemary sprigs. The river down the mountain is rock salt, and a trail of coffee grounds leads monks on their delicious pilgrimage. The team used over 20 sheets of gingerbread. The grand prix de show went to Courtney Harper + Partners for its coral reef entry.

Kirksey’s Victorian dollhouse won best traditionally themed entry. John Moore tells us the firm typically builds grand architectural icons and focuses on the exteriors, neglecting the interior. This year, they reversed it with the dollhouse’s openable design and decked out rooms. That created some challenges; John says adding upstairs furniture made the floors sag, so they had to add interior walls on the first floor. (Turns out, gingerbread isn’t great structural material in high humidity.) Trey Bartsch says the 3,000 event attendees loved Kirksey’s furniture, especially the bookshelf made of gum and windows made of gelatin sheets. Trey’s favorite part: Kids commenting about being inspired to become architects.

Gensler sent two teams, constructing the Shanghai Tower (pictured) and Mars. The Shanghai Tower group had a big shopping day in preparation—they bought two carts full of goodies, including 30 boxes of Rice Krispies cereal and 30 bags of marshmallows. They had to build a special wooden formwork (2’x2’x5”) to create the Rice Krispies blocks. The other winning entries were American Construction Investigation and League of Native Planters’ Milkweed House (second runner-up and tallest standing structure), Thomas Printworks and Ginger and the Snaps’ Sandcastle (public favorite and most creative interpretation of materials), Jackson & Ryan’s Tower Theater (best nontraditional), PBK Architects’ Hines Water Wall (best architectural icon) and Klein Forest High School’s City Hall (best high school entry).