The World's Largest Wedding Cake Weighed As Much As A Dump Truck
On the one hand, a wedding cake is an understandable expense. Chances are you're going to be feeding over 100 people, so it stands to reason you wouldn't just whip up some cake mix from Duncan Hines and be done with it. Some wedding cakes are so huge and so ornate they almost don't look edible; they more closely resemble one of those decorative "follies" rich people used to build (like the building in Scotland shaped like a pineapple). And then there's the world's largest wedding cake, which at 6.8 tons weighed as much as a small dump truck or an adult elephant.
What could the occasion possibly be? Was King Kong tying the knot with the 50 Foot Woman? No, as you might guess from the fact it's in the Guinness Book of World Records, this was done more or less for its own sake. The cake was for a bridal showcase held at the Mohegan Sun Hotel and Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut in 2004. You'd think the record would have been broken in Las Vegas, considering the city's history with weddings and mind-boggling excess (fare thee well, Heart Attack Grill), but apparently it hasn't been topped.
The world's largest wedding cake had to be assembled by forklift
The project was masterminded by Lynn Mansel, the executive pastry chef at Mohegan Sun at the time, and it wasn't easy. (Frankly, it's hard enough making a regular, non-gargantuan wedding cake since you have to keep the weather in mind.) Mansel made use of almost 5,000 pounds of frosting and 10,000 pounds of cake batter, resulting in the 15,000 pound behemoth you see above. Somewhat surprisingly, it only took a week to see the task through to its end.
Clearly this was not a task that could be trusted to the weak knees and quavering hands of us fallible humans, so the parts of the cake were stacked on top of each other using a forklift. Amazingly, the cake was edible, and showcase guests were given what we can only assume were plenty of slices. (The leftovers were sent to a pig farm.) After the success of the stunt, Mansel took to creating other enormous baked goods, including a fully edible, 28-foot gingerbread house that gets put up each year at Mohegan Sun around the holidays (as far as we can tell the tradition is still on-going). As for your upcoming nuptials, you may want to just order the same cake JFK served at his wedding.