The heaviest, highest and by far the largest sculpted cake in the world has been in the making for the past few weeks at Bovlei Wine Cellars in Wellington.
It’s the handiwork of cake sculptor extraordinaire Dorothy Klerck of Wellington.
If all goes according to plan, the mammoth cake will arrive safely by truck at its final destination later today (Thursday 1 June) in time for a VIP function and auction that kicks off the start of the 2017 Good Food and Wine Show (GFWS) in the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
There it will receive centre stage attention until Sunday 4 June as part of Cape Town’s pre-eminent food show.
It’s not in everyone’s piping bag to take up the challenge to decorate an exact replica of the world’s heaviest land mammal (and its calf, to boot). Luckily, it is the type of challenge that Klerck thrives on. Last year she made a life-like and life-sized rhinoceros, also for the GFWS.
She is probably the world’s leading 3-D cake sculptor, and has visited more than 22 countries in the last few years to present workshops on how to master the art of making cakes that defy gravity. She has also showed off her skill at many a food or cake show as participant or judge. Most recently, she was one of the celebrity bakers at the Brisbane International Cake Show Australia. In June, she will be off to Australia for a 3-D master class, during which she will show participants how to sculpt a great white shark cake.
For her latest elephant look-alike endeavour, about 1 200 eggs were used to bake 150 giant sheets of cake. These are held together with 25 kilograms of butter cream. Klerck and her assistants had to melt 120 kilograms of chocolate, and used 160 kilograms of fondant to cover the animal’s body.
“We estimate that the cake weighs about a ton,” says Klerck of the 2,4 metres high cake, which is 3,5 metres in length.
Basic physics, including the laws of gravity, dictate that the elephant replica cannot be made of cake and icing alone. The animal’s body is built around a basic frame of plywood and metal screws. “Just using baking supplies will also simply make it much too heavy to move, and will cost so much more,” says Klerck, explaining why filla foam (often used to seal windows) is used extensively in the bottom half of the cake.
Her assistants, Elmarie Louw of Ella’s Cakes and Sugar Art in Paarl and Robyn Potter of Chocswirl Cakes in Durbanville, are highly skilled cake decoration specialists in their own right.
They both, however, admit they are quite happy to be Klerck’s sidekicks or “minions”, because they do not have the guts to take up such a massive challenge on their own.
“It’s the best on-the-job experience I could have asked for,” explains Louw.
The immense feat of cake, fondant and chocolate is a joint project between the GFWS, The Elephant Project SA and Slim Lady Wines. Sponsorship of, among others, the cake and butter icing used in the construction was received from Value Baking Supplies, while icing colours came from Barco Colours.
According to the organisers, all funds raised will be donated to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the beneficiary organisation chosen by The Elephant Project SA.
Visitors can make donations at the show, get a professional instant photograph taken with the Elephant Cake or purchase a limited-edition T-shirt.
For the first time in the history of the show, entry for children under the age of 12 will be free.
“It’s all part of an effort by the organisers to ensure as many children as possible get to see the elephant cake, so as much awareness as possible can be raised for the plight of our elephants,” explains Klerck.
“The Biggest Elephant Cake in the World project is a wonderfully fun way to introduce a deadly serious subject to visitors,” says Dr Joseph Okori, Southern African Regional Director for IFAW.
“It will help fund the critical work of our Landscape Conservation Programme to protect elephant habitats, manage human-elephant conflict, prevent poaching, end the ivory trade and rescue and rehabilitate elephants.”
For more information about the elephant cake project, visit www.theelephantprojectsa.co.za, or watch how it was made on Klerck’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/eatcakeparty.
