THE former Co-op building in Tranent, currently being renovated by George Thomson, featured on Channel 4 on Tuesday evening - as a cake.

As part of his retirement party plans, George's PA Sharon secretly set up a special cake of his final project on Winton Place.

The cake was made by food artist and cake sculptor Michelle Wibowo and was featured on Channel 4's tea-time programme Extreme Cake Makers.

The cake was 3ft4in wide, and 8in high, and is an exact replica of the building near Tranent High Street.

Using vanilla sponge sandwiched with buttercream, former architect Michelle carved the cake into shape before covering it in a sugar paste fondant.

She then printed the exterior of the shop onto edible paper, placing it onto the skeleton on the building.

For the finer details, Michelle used a sugar paste which she sculpted by hand.

The cake itself was crafted in Hayward's Heath, West Sussex, and then driven to Brighton, where Tranent-born George works.

"He wanted to help revive the centre of town, so he's taken on a derelict building, and he's totally restoring it," said Sharon.

George bought the building on the corner of High Street in late 2015, and planned to renovate it into a mixture of shops, cafes and a Post Office.

Upon seeing Michelle's creation, Sharon exclaimed: "It's exactly what I wanted. It's got total wow factor. I think it's absolutely incredible. It just doesn't look like cake."

George, when he was finally let in on the surprise, agreed: "When I first came in, I actually thought the cake was just a cardboard model. Then I realised it was actually a cake, and to see the level of detail and quality in doing something like that, it's quite fantastic.

"I could take it home, put it in the building, and people would actually think it's an architect's model."

Sharon confirmed: "George was absolutely blown away by the cake. He didn't want to cut it and was desperately trying to find a way to get it back to Scotland. We pointed out it wasn't possible because we wanted to eat it.

"Michelle totally delivered on the cake, so she's probably the first person in George's life that has actually managed to do something to surprise him."

The show is available on Channel 4's streaming service All 4. It is Series 3, Episode 8 of the show.