VENTURA COUNTY WEEKEND : Hotel Staff Cooks Up a Candy-Land Village : Cooks and servers compete to create ornate gingerbread structures at Mandalay Beach Resort.

Gingerbread houses are no laughing matter at the Mandalay Beach Resort and its in-house restaurant, Capistrano’s.)

Well, OK, there’s a little laughter, but there is also a large dose of intensive labor and a dash of seriousness, as illustrated by the gingerbread village display unveiled this week near the Christmas tree in the hotel lobby.

Nearly two dozen cooks, chefs, servers, banquet staff and other hotel and restaurant personnel spent two weeks transforming 270 pounds of gingerbread, 150 pounds of powdered sugar, five gallons of egg whites, about 30 pounds of assorted candies and other secret ingredients into elaborate gingerbread structures.

The gingerbread houses--and castles, churches and other creations--will be judged, with the winner receiving $50 and, more importantly, bragging rights for the next 365 days.

So was the battle competitive?

“Oh, you know it,” said Robert Garcia, head chef at Capistrano’s, and himself a builder of edible houses. “I had one guy who put at least 30 hours of his own time into this.”

Garcia said all of the gingerbread creations had to be 95% food product, present a general candy-land appearance, and fit on a 15-by-23-inch baking pan. Aside from that, it was pretty much anything goes.

Along with more traditional houses, the calorie-laden village also features a castle with a moat, a church with a fountain and lighting, and an Eiffel Tower.

The hotel is located at 2101 Mandalay Beach Road.

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Diners at HomeTown Buffet in Simi Valley will help liven up the holidays Monday for some local residents.

The restaurant will donate 20% of all sales made from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m. to Simi Valley’s Care & Share program, a nonprofit organization that provides emergency food and shelter to those in need. Santa will drop in for photos at 4:30 p.m. to help attract customers.

Charitable activities are not new to HomeTown Buffet, which opened a little more than a year ago.

General Manager Karl Kirk said the restaurant makes monthly donations of canned food and eggs to Care & Share, and delivers rolls and muffins daily to the Samaritan Center, a Simi Valley drop-in location for homeless people.

“We also support the local schools here in Simi Valley,” said Kirk. “I don’t think there’s any that we haven’t adopted.” HomeTown Buffet has helped out with school fund-raisers and with scholastic achievement programs.

HomeTown Buffet is located at 1855 Cochran St.

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Folks at the Full of Beans coffee house in Ventura traveled to a coffee industry trade show in Seattle earlier this month to drum up wholesale business for their Java Frost brand of mocha and latte powders, used in blended drinks.

Reports are that the trip did, in fact, start some deals percolating. Betsy Clapp, co-owner of the beachside establishment, said seven coffeehouses have already become clients.

The Java Frost powders are combined with an espresso mixture and blended with cubed ice to create what Clapp refers to as an “adult Slurpee.”

“Our customers kept telling us we had the best blend in California,” she said. “They kept telling us how much they loved it and how they were addicted to it.”

Originally, the vanilla and chocolate powders were made on-site, but business was so fast and furious that the Full of Beans staff couldn’t keep up. Now, said Clapp, the product is manufactured in Los Angeles.

In addition to the blended coffee drinks, the Java Frost powder is used for fruit smoothies. The coffee house is located at 1124 S. Seaward Ave.

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Leo Smith is a regular contributor to Ventura County Weekend. Write to him at 93 S. Chestnut St., Ventura 93001, or send faxes to 653-7576.