Eye Candy of the Week

Property: The winning gingerbread house from a competition Saturday at the City Market

Owner: Katie and Frank Chipman-Bergsma

This week, our eye candy is actual candy! The Lansing City Market held a gingerbread house competition on Saturday. Seven different teams came to battle with their gingerbread, icing and gumdrops on hand.

Katie Chipman-Bergsma and her 2-year-old son, Frank, of Lansing won the competition by building a two-story gingerbread palace. The architecture of this house is what sets it apart from the others. A beautiful porch, complete with pretzel pillars, roof and a wreath, gives the house a sophisticated feel. It stands tall at two stories, with enough stability to stay up despite the frosting snow on top of the thatched pretzel roof. It even has great landscaping — gumdrop shrubberies covered with powdered snow brings out the holiday warmth. And there’s a garage with black licorice detail? This gingerbread man has it all.

Judges included Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, Evan Pinsonnault of WLNS TV and Nick Yorko, son of City Councilwoman Jessica Yorko.

Not in the running but worthy of note: a collapsed house — whose quick-thinking creator dubbed it a victim of Hurricane Sandy.

“Eye candy of the Week” is our look at some of the nicer properties in Lansing. It rotates each week with Eyesore of the Week. If you have a suggestion, please e-mail eye@lansingcitypulse.com or call Andy Balaskovitz at 999-5064.