TEN TONS OF CAKE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21859, 23 July 1934, Page 15

TEN TONS OF CAKE

MIXTURE. IN MELBOURNE CENTENARY MASTERPIECE The housewife's ingredients for a fruit cake are measured in ounces and single pounds. Mr. George Rath speaks of the mixing in Melbourne for the 10ton Centenary cake in terms of flour, raisins, sultanas, sugar and almonds by the sack, peel by the box, and eggs by the gross. The largest cake ever made in Australia alters all conceptions of ingredients and mixing, says the Argus, and earnest calculation and planning are the preliminaries to placing huge slabs of cake in the large baking ovens. The layman wonders how the tons -of ingredients could ever become a handsome live-tiered edifice, scrolled and beligured, topping the height of three 6ft. men standing on top of one another, and occupying more space at its base than a boxing ring. To Mr. Rath, who will make the cake, everything is easy. The cake will not be mixed in one process; there will be 240 mixings of approximately 1001b. each, allowance being made for evaporation (15cwt.) and waste in cutting and trimming in the building operations. The first step is the creaming of tho butter and sugar and tho addition of the eggs. After that the mixture goes to a largo bowl, into which first the flour and then the fruit are tipped. The fruit- has been prepared, having been dried and washed bv machinery and picked over by hand. The mixing is done by machinery, large arms rotating steadily. The mixture is cut into slabs and then baked for some hours. After baking, the slabs arc stored so that they may mature, for fruit cake by. keeping. After maturity the tiers will be built up and then covered with icing. The design for the cake has not yet been decided upon, but whatever decoration is necessary will be done by skilled /modellers. It is estimated that six weeks will be spent in making one of the largest cakes the world has seen *—lo tons of ingredients —all Australian.