When you’re the biggest cake show in the world celebrating your 25th birthday, what’s the most important thing you need? Why cake of course! But not just any cake, THE biggest, most beautiful, out of this world cake ever seen! A cake so big you need a ladder to reach the top! Sometimes though even a cake of this magnitude isn’t enough on its own to celebrate such an important birthday, so what do you do? Well if you’re team Saracino you decide that the only thing perfect enough to accompany such an incredible cake is an equally incredible life-sized replica of the fabulous Melanie Underwood!
How did all this magic happen? Let me tell you… Way back in January Sylwia Anna Jozwiak dreamt up the idea for the birthday cake to top all birthday cakes, now as amazing as she is this was a task she could not do alone, after months of planning she rallied her team of super talented sugarcraft artists and told them of her master plan. She enlisted the expert help of the CakeDummies.com team to create the larger lower tiers of the cake. The bottom tier was an amazing 1000mm diameter and 300mm deep. Preparation of the structure and dummies for the cake even involved weekend visits to Llandudno for the amazing Rhianydd Webb and Sylwia Sobiegraj! 30 Saracino Ambassadors from around the world jumped on the birthday train and set about making magic. For months they worked away using only the finest Saracino ingredients to complete their creations in preparation for the big day…
The day of the build! As the sun was rising team Saracino were already up and raring to go, ambassadors with their precious cargo were travelling from all over the country and flying in from all over the world to create the mother of all birthday cakes.
So many jobs, so much work and everything had to be done on site in the oh so cold NEC hall! Cakes were being covered, piping was taking place. Flowers and leaves were being wired together in preparation for their adornment on the cake. Beautiful paintings carefully unpackaged and lined up ready to be hung. Over in the figure zone, there were so many magnificent figures being unboxed and prepared. Ambassadors were fixing heads to ambassadors, creating hairstyles and adding those finishing touches. All around were people working, husbands were roped in for the arduous task of kneading and boy, knead they did! Saracino Pasta Model, Pasta top and modelling chocolate all in preparation for the unbelievable creation that was taking place in the middle of the build! The phenomenal life-sized Melanie Underwood! Who at the start of Thursday morning was nothing more than a head and pair of hands but who throughout the day was brought to life under the watchful eyes and expert guidance of Rhianydd Webb and Isabel Tamargo! Every inch of her carved smoothed and coloured to perfection!
Breaths were held all around as the cakes were stacked and lifted into place on the table. The home stretch was now in sight, the flower team descended on the cake twiddling and twirling and attaching their masterpieces. The figures were secured into position, on the cake, under the cake and all around the cake! Paintings were hung delicately on the walls, and Melanie was finally guided into place, graphics and posters prepared by João Pimentel (including a fun selfie frame) were set up, all miraculously before the 8pm deadline! When finished the overall height of the cake was measured at a staggering 2200mm tall.
As if all this wasn’t enough magic for one stand to have, throughout the weekend the team Saracino offered multiple astounding free demonstrations from its proud ambassadors. There were modelling demonstrations for animals and people, demonstrations in how to paint with cocoa butter, and an array of flower making demonstrations to name a few. For those who wished for a more hands on approach team Saracino provided a marvellous opportunity to take some spectacular classes on site with several of their incredibly talented ambassadors.
So, they had the best cake ever and the astounding demo’s and the spectacular classes, but Saracino had a rather special and very important mission they were also working on all weekend. Raising money for Hope House Ty Gobaith! A beautiful and vitally important hospice for children who are affected by conditions so serious they aren’t expected to live longer than early adulthood. With the generous donations from Cake international, Silvia Mancini Cake art & co, Cerart, Valentina’s sugarland and Sweet Revolutions by Domy. Saracino put together two phenomenal hampers full of goodies and sold raffles tickets throughout the weekend of the show.
How do you top all of that? By inviting the real-life Melanie Underwood to come and cut the cake of course! At 3pm the cake was ceremoniously cut and served to the hoards of visitors desperate to get a delicious slice! The raffle was drawn, and the winners announced. Now you may think that this would conclude our story but no! Not content with just a raffle for Hope House, team Saracino then set about auctioning off everything that adorned the cake! People were buying flowers and leaves. Husbands were selling off wives, wives were selling off husbands…Of the sugar variety! Ambassadors and judges were buying their own figures, well who wouldn’t be ecstatic at having a mini version of themselves in sugar? Money poured in from everyone happy to help such a worthwhile cause. I’m delighted to tell you the generosity of everyone who contributed that weekend raised a whopping £1820.65 and was gratefully received by Hope House shortly afterwards.
This is how you have the most memorable, fantastical worthwhile weekend! A birthday celebration full of laughter and love and incredible sugar art! Roll on Cake international 2019 you won’t believe what we have planned!
Enjoy the photo slide below. Click on the picture to see more.
Text by Lynsey Wilton – Eddleston
