The masterpiece will be part of a silent auction on Dec. 2, and the proceeds from the auction will go to Santa Clara County Children's Health Initiative, which provides health insurance to those who can't afford it—something da Vinci, a social activist in his time, might actually envy.

Some 28 third- and fourth-grade classes from Cupertino and San Jose each created their own masterpiece, all under the supervision of Hayes Mansion employees. And each student also decorated two gingerbread people, one to take home and one for the project. Six of the 28 classes that chose to participate in the program were from Regnart.

On Nov. 17, after the class's lunch, staff from the Dolce Hayes Mansion showed up in Ayde's class with a plain, unadorned gingerbread schoolhouse and gingerbread people. They brought Royal frosting and bags of assorted candies, and the children went to work. The mansion's "chef" followed the children's instructions for what to put on the schoolhouse, but the children got their own hands into the cookies. Ben Zhao, one of the students, said the icing was delicious. And Madeline Wu said her gingerbread man was too beautiful to eat.

"There was so much candy on those cookies," Ayde said, "that we were afraid to hold them vertically." She said the class decided to let the cookies sit overnight so the icing would harden and hopefully hold the candy in place. Royal frosting (typically used for this purpose) dries hard and fast and lasts for weeks without softening and keeps its shape.

Still, Ayde said her students packed the cookies in plastic bags; the few misplaced candies did not upset anyone, "especially when I asked them to think about what would happen to those candies after they took their first bite," she said. In fact, she said the children were looking forward to eating the ones they took home.

Paras Jain, who said decorating the cookies made him feel like a baker, said his brother ate most of the cookie. "All I got was the head," Para said.

And there were the funny pokes at each other's creations. Kiersten Chuc said classmate Ben's gingerbread man had a potbelly.

But Madeline Wu said her gingerbread man was too beautiful to eat. "It's on the kitchen table," she said, "and I look at it everyday." She said her mother told her it was "distinctive."

But the gingerbread schoolhouse was the piéce de resistance, with hardly a tiny nib of the gingerbread exposed for all the adorning frosting and candy glued to it.

Anjali Narula liked it so much she said, "it would be cool if it were my house," and Rohan Kasiviswanathan said, "Working on the house made me fill like a construction worker."

That's not so far flung a feeling from what professional chefs who create gingerbread houses around the world must feel. The gingerbread house holiday tradition began in Germany, but today the houses are constructed around the world, from as far from Germany as Australia. And the final showpieces resemble everything from famous castles to the shoe the fabled woman lived in with so many children. These become the artwork of contests all over the globe.

And this year the students at Regnart are a part of that tradition.

The 28 gingerbread schoolhouse masterpieces from around the county and the hundreds of gingerbread people will make their debut at the Hayes Mansion library on Dec. 2 amid words of praise by San Jose's mayor, Ron Gonzales, and serenaded by Christmas carols.

The gingerbread people and schoolhouses will be part of a gingerbread village display throughout the season at the Dolce Hayes Mansion library along with a spectacular gingerbread house created by the mansion's chef, Steven Parker, and his staff.

The catalyst behind this project is Dolce Hayes Mansion's director of sales and marketing, Kelly Commerford. He created a similar program while working for Dolce International in Minneapolis. Commerford said, "This is our holiday gift to our neighbors."

But there is another reason the mansion's staff was sent out to the schools, to encourage students to consider a career in the hospitality industry. Perhaps licking frosting off their fingers and creating an edible masterpiece will trigger some interest.

The kick off for the gingerbread schoolhouse display and silent auction in the Dolce Hayes Mansion library will be Dec. 2 at 1 p.m. with a city official's lavish praise and students from Holy Family Education Center singing Christmas carols. The display and silent auction are open to the public and will continue until Dec. 22.

The mansion also offers three Sunday brunches—Dec. 5, 12 and 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.—where Santa Claus will greet children and families.

For reservations and more information call 408.226.3200.