Melbourne's longest cake

Melbourne's Longest Cake is a fundraising event held annually in Melbourne, Australia. The event raised money and awareness for the Cerebral Palsy Support Network and Solve! at the Royal Children's Hospital for the benefit of people born with cerebral palsy.

The Cake

Melbourne's Longest Cake is a fundraising intitiative of the Cerebral Palsy Support Network. It is decorated and displayed annually outside Melbourne's Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

The size of the cake is not limited to 100 metres - the more cake that is sponsored, the longer it will be. There is no limit to how long it could potentially be.

Corporate sponsors are offered the opportunity to sponsor metres of the cake. Each sponsor's corporate logo is printed onto a white chocolate plaque with food dyes and displayed for the duration of the event. Contributing organisations are allowed to take their metre back to their office - if it is unsold on the day.

Any cake left over is pledged to the Second Bite Food Bank, and distributed to disadvantaged families and individuals across Melbourne.

Melbourne's Longest Cake 2008

In 2008, Melbourne's Longest Cake fell on Sunday, 2nd March along the Crown Promenade. It was one hundred metres long, and was banana-choc chip flavour.

Performances included Ricki-Lee Coulter, Rob Mills, The Choir of Hard Knocks, Peter Combe, Rhonda Burchmore, Annabelle Priftis, Alanna Deutrom and Anthony De Masi.

The Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

* 350 kg Ripe Bananas
* 350 kg Brown Sugar
* 350 kg Flour
* 180 litres Whole Eggs
* 180 litres Milk
* 110 kg Chocolate Chips
* 96 litres Vegetable Oil
* 11 kg Baking Powder
* 10.5 kg Bi-carb of Soda
* 4 kg Salt

METHOD:

1. Place large white chefs hats on heads. Have your kitchen team (we recommend two dozen sturdy individuals) position your heavy lifting equipment close to a large mixing bowl – a 2000 litre capacity should suffice.

2. Whisk the sugar and eggs. This should take between four and six hours. Meanwhile have a 50 pairs of kitchen hands peel and mash the bananas while making monkey noises. Keep watch for hungry monkeys.

3. Add the flour, remembering to bend from the knees. Add the baking powder and bi-carb of soda – 1300 pinches should do it. Then the milk and mix all together to form a smooth mixture.

4. In teams, add the mashed bananas, a handful at a time and mix well with an industrial implement.

5. Have several muscular assistants slowly add the oil. Set aside four hours for this task. Add chocolate chips, a bucket at a time, being careful not to accidentally eat too many.

6. Pour the mixture into giant rectangular cake tins and bake at 160C for one hour while you lick the mixing spoon. Once cooked, turn out cake and leave to cool on wire racks – guard from hungry monkeys while you prepare the icing.

ICING:

INGREDIENTS:
* 360 kg Icing Sugar
* 120 kg Cream Cheese
* 46 kg Unsalted Butter
* 2 kg Lemon Zest

METHOD:
7. Take your 120 kg of cream cheese out of the fridge. This may take a big fridge and the best part of an hour. Mix with softened butter. Zest several hundred lemons. Mix all ingredients being careful not to become covered head to toe in icing sugar. 8. Find 150 apprentice chefs and cookery students to help spread icing evenly over cooled cake with a hundred gigantic spatulas. 9. Decorate cake with imagination and flair!

Melbourne's Longest Cake 2007

The inaugural Melbourne's Longest Cake was unveiled on March 25, 2007. It was 100 metres long, and carrot flavoured.

Australian actor, author and comedian Shaun Micallef donated his time to take on the Master of Ceremonies role, which included performances by Charmz, Kia Luby, Annabelle Priftis & Gerry Smith and The Glenroy Special School.

Also to make appearances were Nikki Osborne, Amy Parks, Anthony Koutoufides, Billy Brownless, Robert DiPierdomenico and Red Raven and Pitbull from Professional Championship Wrestling Australia.

Another musician to throw his support behind the cake in 2007 was Australian rock legend Jimmy Barnes, whose daughter also has cerebral palsy.

The Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

* 500 kg light oil
* 500 kg brown sugar
* 300 kg egg whole
* 1080 kg carrots grated
* 750 kg self raising flour
* 4 kg bicarbonate of soda
* 24 kg mixed spices

METHOD:

1. Place large white chefs hats on heads. Have your kitchen brigade (we recommend two dozen sturdy individuals) position your heavy lifting equipment close to a large mixing bowl – a 2000 litre capacity should suffice.

2. Whisk the sugar and eggs. This should take between four and six hours. Meanwhile have a soccer team of kitchen hands grate the carrot. Keep watch for rabbits.

3. Add the flour remembering to bend from the knees. Add the bicarbonate of soda – 1300 pinches should do it. Then the spices. Rest.

4. Have the nightshift add the grated carrot, a handful at a time and mix well with an industrial implement.

5. Last, have several muscular assistants slowly add the oil. Set aside four hours for this task.

6. Put the mixture into several hundred cake tins and bake at 160C for one hour.

ICING:

INGREDIENTS:
* 92 kg unsalted butter
* 240 kg cream cheese
* 4kg lemon zest
* 720kg icing sugar

METHOD:
7. Take your 240kg of cream cheese out of the fridge. This may take a big fridge and the best part of an hour. Mix with softened butter. Zest several hundred lemons. Mix all ingredients being careful not to become covered head to toe in icing sugar.
8. Spread evenly over cake with gigantic spatula.

External links

* [http://www.melbourneslongestcake.org.au Melbourne's Longest Cake]
* [http://www.cpsn.info Cerebral Palsy Support Network]
* [http://www.rch.org.au Royal Childrens Hospital]