Posted: 11/13/02

As cakes go, this one is a whopper!

Cliff Buchan
News Editor

When it comes to birthday cakes, they donít get much bigger.

John Lewis and his staff at Country Home Bakery and Deli have baked and decorated their share of birthday and anniversary cakes in the 21 years Lewis has owned the Forest Lake bakery.

But when Prom Catering came to Lewis last week with a request, it almost floored Lewis. The local bakery provides baked items for Prom Catering on a regular basis, but this order was something else, Lewis said.

Could the bakery prepare a cake in two days to help the Metrodome in Minneapolis mark its 20th anniversary, Lewis was asked by the Oakdale company? When Lewis learned the size of the order, it presented a daunting job for the bakery staff.

ìItís by far the biggest cake weíve ever made,î Lewis said last week, surveying the monster that was being prepared in his bakery.

A big cake

And big it is.

Lewis assigned his son, John, as lead baker, and turned over the decorating to his daughter, Joelle, who has been decorating cakes for five years for her father.

The 20-hour process was completed late Thursday and taken to the Metrodome last Friday morning for the weekend anniversary celebration.

When it was finished, the cake spanned 16 feet in length and was six feet tall. The anniversary cake was formed by piecing together 32 full sized sheet cakes that are each 2-feet-by 1‡-feet in size.

The bakers used 300 pounds of cake batter and 200 pounds of icing to form the cake.

It was Joelle Lewisí job to draw out the design provided by Prom Catering on the huge sheet of cake and apply the artistic coloring in black and red icing.

The cake was made in segments. Once completed, each of the 32 sheet cakes was boxed and prepared for shipping. A clearly printed number on each box indicated its proper order for assembling.

The elder Lewis, a baker for more than 30 years, took on the task of delivering the cake to the Metrodome on Friday and assembling the cake.

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