New paint on Main Street takes the cake

Gigi Huscroft of the Cupcake Lady Cafe with the storefront portion of her cake creation celebrating the start of Main Street Matters which takes place Saturday. The cake, she and husband Derek, worked on for over 40 hours, will be big enough to feed over 500 celebrants at Saturday's party which begins at 10:30 a.m.

image credit: Mark Brett/Western News

Recent weeks of wet weather put plans for a makeover of two blocks on Pentictons Main Street on hold, but the project is back on, along with a celebratory party Saturday.

It was supposed to start April 21 and the rain pushed it back until April 28, that is when they actually started, said Kerri Milton, executive director of the downtown Penticton Association, adding that power washing buildings in the 300 and 400 blocks of Main Street is underway, with painting getting started on Thursday.

Its all a result of the community casting enough votes in an online contest last spring to get Penticton into the top 20 communities of Benjamin Moores Main Street Matters contest, and winning paint and services to refresh two blocks Main Street.

The residents and businesses of Penticton got behind the project with such enthusiasm it is an honour we were selected as one of three Canadian cities, said Milton.

The party gets underway at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, with speeches and then the official cutting of an immense cake commissioned from Pentictons own Cupcake Lady Caf.

It is supposed to be a big party to celebrate our Main Street, said Milton. There will be activities all like an old-style photo booth, face painting, a bouncy castle and music from DJ Shakes through to 1 p.m. in the street. They just want a big party atmosphere.

When Gigi Huscroft, aka The Cup Cake Lady, was approached by a Benjamin Moore representative about constructing an edible storefront re-creation cake capable of feeding upwards of 500 people, she didnt hesitate to take on the challenge.

Although Id never done a cake that size it was huge it was just a matter of planning and I didnt want to go to Kelowna and so I said yes, said Huscroft, who owns the Front Street Cup Cake Cafe which the company rep just happen to stumble across during an earlier visit here. Yes there were times I was worried we couldnt do it, just the engineering necessary, we had to make sure it would stand up straight and not wobble over and transport it as well, its mind boggling.

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New paint on Main Street takes the cake