For our penultimate Pinkorama of 2023, returning Pinkorama champions Candace and Cassandra bring us…  Stolen Peep Moments in The Forgotten Room!

The very first Team W collaboration, The Forgotten Room follows the stories of three women– Olive, Lucy, and Kate– all connected by the same Upper East Side Gilded Age mansion as that mansion changes along with the city around it, moving from a private home in the 1890s to a boarding house for respectable working women in the 1920s to a World War II hospital in 1944.

Candace and Cassandra write: “One small attic room bears witness to the stolen moments between three couples connected by love, blood, and secrets.”

Some of you may know that Karen, Beatriz, and I visited the real forgotten room at the top of the real mansion when we were researching this book– and I have to tell you, those windows are spot on.  And made out of candy!  I’m so impressed that they’re both a perfect replica and edible.

“It all begins with the couple in the back, Olive and Harry. It is 1892 and Olive and Harry take their clandestine relationship further. Harry is enthralled in his sketching of Olive while she contemplates their future.”  Note the vivid necklace around her neck!

“Next is the couple on the left side, Lucy and John. It is 1920 and after finding a treasure trove of sketches and letters in a secret hiding space above the fireplace and in a forgotten Chinese cabinet, Lucy and John piece together their parents’ histories and their feelings for each other with a moment of kisses and disarray.”  Don’t you adore her 1920s flapper headdress and his tiny bow tie?

“Finally, on the right side is Kate and Cooper. It is 1944 and Cooper is taking his last chance to sketch his doctor and muse, Kate and Kate is taking this moment to be with Cooper before he heads back to Charleston.”  (I’ve never noticed before, but I think Kate looks a bit like Karen, don’t you?)  I adore that sketchpad!

Here you can see all the couples in situ in the forgotten room….

Don’t you love the mysterious chest and the scattered papers that were found within?

And from here we can gaze down on the scene, looking at all the generations at once!

Candance and Cassandra write that this was inspired by Chapters 17, 22, and 30 of The Forgotten Room.  Since that’s a bunch of text, I’m not going to transcribe the relevant portions here– but you can find it all in the book!

Thank you, Candace and Cassandra!  I so loved getting to visit with all three couples at once, and love the idea of showing them all inhabiting the same space.  As always, I am so impressed that all of these amazing, perfect details, from the windows to the characters’ clothes, were crafted out of edibles.  I am absolutely fascinated by how well candy was able to replicate brick, window panes, fabric….  It is true peepsmanship!

Can we have a huge round of applause for Candace and Cassandra and the forgotten peeps?

Join me here tomorrow for our sixth and final Pinkorama of 2023!