Edible Amethyst

This coming weekend we are celebrating our youngest granddaughter's first birthday. She'll be getting an amazing 'fairy' cake, made by my sister.  Well, a few days later is our eldest grandson's birthday, and so he doesn't feel left out, I decided to make him something special too.

He'll be turning 14, and is into rocks and minerals, so what could be more appropriate than an edible 'rock'?  Years ago when I was a volunteer art teacher, one of my favourite projects in grade six was the making of paper rocks and minerals. I had drawn up crystal patterns for various rocks and minerals, and they were printed onto card stock. The kids made the crystals and covered them with Podgy & tissue paper. Then the crystals were glued onto a 'paper rock base' made of crumpled construction paper slathered with wallpaper paste. They looked incredibly believable....

So I thought maybe I could make one out of gingerbread. I mixed up a batch of gingerbread, printed out the patterns for amethyst and proceeded to cut and bake all the parts....

Obviously gingerbread isn't going to be as straight and 'crisp-edged' as paper, so after gluing all
​the pieces together with royal icing, I did a little sanding to smooth everything out a little....

After brushing on a coat of white royal icing, I painted all the 'crystals' with
​diluted purple food colouring, and put them over a heating duct to dry....

We made a 'rock base' of thick gingerbread supported with aluminum foil underneath, then with more royal icing, I glued all the 'crystals' onto the 'rock'. Piped some star points around and between everything, and sprinkled some purple sugar for a bit of sparkle.....

I hope he likes it.