gingerbread

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
gingerbread/ˈʤɪnʤəbred/

▶noun

• 1 cake made with treacle or syrup and flavoured with ginger.

• 2 informal fancy decoration on a building.

– phrases
take the gilt off the gingerbread Brit. cause something to lose its attractiveness or desirability.

– origin ME, from OFr. gingembrat, from med. L. gingibratum, from gingiber (see ginger).