Wednesday was an 80th birthday party to remember for Ted Martindale, the owner of Granville’s Coffee in Quesnel, B.C.
In a project that united the entire community in the Cariboo region, he and numerous volunteers created a 2,500-kilogram carrot cake that is being distributed to the entire city.
The carrot cake measures 5.18 metres by 5.18 metres. It took over 800 kilograms of carrots, 317 kilograms of butter, and thousands of eggs to make.
“I’m sort of known as the crazy old man of Quesnel, I think, because our restaurant is constantly doing nutty things,” Martindale told CBC News.
“And I just thought it would be a fun thing for the whole town … to do this and invite the whole town over for this big lunch.”
It took over a month for Martindale to bake over 430 individual carrot cakes to create the massive final product. He had to use a local grocery store’s freezer to store them.
“It’s almost like brick masons here assembling this whole thing,” the coffee shop owner said.
#TheMoment he got a 6,000-pound carrot cake for his 80th birthday
In addition to the carrot cake, which was unveiled Wednesday at the seniors’ community centre in the city of around 10,000 people, Martindale’s birthday celebration also featured nearly 100 racks of ribs and 150 sandwiches for the community.
He said none of that will go to waste, with any remnants being donated to the local food bank.
Nissa Schonke, who owns Phunky Fork catering in Quesnel, was tasked with creating over 900 kilograms of icing for the cake.
“To be honest, I kind of wasn’t surprised. Ted is a guy of grandeur gestures. So it was right along the lines with something that he would do,” she said of the project.
She said the final design of the icing reflects wildflowers and vines that makes the viewer think of B.C.’s greenery.
“Quesnel is so near and dear to my heart … this is something else to put us on the map,” she said.
Josh Blanc, who works as a handyman at Granville’s Coffee, said the cakes were baked in batches of five — and he managed to fit them all in a van to bring them down for final assembly.
“It’s pretty special, I suppose. Something to look back on in future times,” he said of the project.
Martindale said that a bakery in a Surrey, B.C., mall was judged to have the Guinness World Record for the largest carrot cake in 2016, with a cake that weighed 2,200 kilograms.
By his estimate, the one baked in Quesnel beats that handily — though the cake has yet to be certified as the biggest on record.
He said he was footing the bill for the massive cake himself.
“Who else is gonna pay? I don’t have a government grant … but I don’t mind. It’s a big community thing, and I’m glad to do it.”
