A celebration that takes the cake!
What takes 1575 eggs, 90kgs of cake flour and 4kg of baking powder to produce, weighs roughly half a ton and looks uncannily like the fresh-from-the-factory Boeing 737-800? It’s an ultra-realistic replica of the state-of-the-art airliner made by Paul Vieira and his team at Cake Extreme. 
What takes 1575 eggs, 90kgs of cake flour and 4kg of baking powder to produce, weighs roughly half a ton and looks uncannily like the fresh-from-the-factory Boeing 737-800?
It’s an ultra-realistic four-meter-by-four-meter replica of the state-of-the-art airliner made by Paul Vieira and his team at Cake Extreme, which was unveiled, cut and shared at OR Tambo airport to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise partnership between British Airways and Comair.
The cake’s designation is ZS-ZWH, the same as the latest acquisition in Comair’s fleet upgrade programme which, says Comair CEO Erik Venter, is a sign of the airline’s confidence in the regional air-travel sector, the airline’s sound business-model and its enduring partnerships.
A large component of the celebration is the cake, complete with rotating turbines in the engines, and wiring for navigation lights, making it the most complex and realistic confection made yet by Cake Extreme.
Vieira says designing the cake has required hours of researching the aircraft to establish its proportions, then measuring and cutting materials. In the same way that the real aircraft is a marvel of design and manufacturing that harnesses physics, so the cake brings some demands. In short, it’s something to bring contestants in the Great British Bake-Off out in a sweat.
To stand on its undercarriage, the sponge-cake that makes up the fuselage has an internal framework of metal, wood and polystyrene. “The wings, elevator and rudder are made of these materials, for example, and all must be covered with hygienic foil, food glue and fondant. The aircraft’s livery will be added last.
“I always dreamt of piloting an airliner, but making a cake that looks like one is not only hard work and immensely enjoyable; it’s also a reminder of just how much we rely on technology for many important aspects of our lives, like business.”
Ingredients include:
- 1575 eggs, weighing 52.5kg
- 90kg of cake flour
- 60kg of white sugar
- 4.5kg of baking powder
- 45l of cooking oil
- 30lt of water
- 500ml of vanilla essence
- 30kg of white margarine
- 20kg of icing sugar
- 50kg of butter cream
- 80kg of colour fondant to cover this entire cake
