HARTFORD, Conneticat, USA. - Mohegan Sun pastry chefs have been working hard all week to prove that you can have your cake and eat it too.
They are building what they hope will be the world's largest wedding cake. The seven-tier cake weighs more than 14,000 pounds and measures about 17-feet tall, and is making its debut at the casino in Uncasville on Sunday.
"It just keeps going up," executive pastry chef Lynn Mansel said. "I still can't believe we did it."
Mansel is hoping to top the Guinness Book world record set by a 5,334 pound cake baked in June 2003 at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla.
Mansel and his crew began assembling the massive white cake last Sunday. The top ingredients include 10,000 pounds of cake batter and 4,810 pounds of frosting, he said. The cake rests on a gigantic scale for measuring purposes, and each tier is separated by steel discs.
"I had to think a lot," Mansel said of the design. "I had to think of all the wedding cakes I've already done and then multiply that by 100."
Forklifts were needed to raise and carefully place each tier, while the crew used a boom — a mini-crane — to decorate the top of the cake.
With a Sunday deadline, the team was in overdrive, working to cover any cracks with frosting and adding the finishing touches — chocolate bows and hearts — to the vanilla-flavored cake.
Mansel came up with the idea this fall as a way to draw attention to the New England Bridal Showcase at the casino. The event features wedding planners, photographers and caterers.
"Back then I thought he (Mansel) was crazy," said pastry chef Brett Barnaby. "It just seemed so unreachable."
And now?
"Well now, I guess I think anything is possible," Barnaby said, laughing.
