La Trinidad bids for Guinness record

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Today, this capital town whips up a giant strawberry cake which this time, local authorities hope, will be worthy of a Guinness record.

Some 3,100 kilos of fresh strawberries carefully picked from fruit farms here will go into the giant cake with a diameter of nine feet, according to Rose Dulunan, chairman of the local tourism council and coordinator of this year’s Strawberry Festival.

Mayor Nestor Fongwan said they hope to feed 55,000 people with the strawberry cake. Each slice will be half an inch thicker than last year’s serving.

Last year’s strawberry cake was only half as big as this year’s. Some 26,000 people partook of it.

The Strawberry Festival is now on its third year. This year, the municipality has support from San Miguel Corp. which is spending for the rest of the ingredients.

Going into today’s giant cake are 1,155 kilos of all-purpose flour, 1,500 bars of Baker’s Best, 1,625 kilos of sugar, 750 dozen eggs, 860 cans of evaporated milk, 20 kilos of baking powder, 10 kilos of iodized salt, 250 liters of whip cream for the icing, 1,550 bottles of strawberry extract from 2,000 kilos of fresh strawberries, and 675 kilos of strawberry jam.

San Miguel Corp., according to Fongwan, is making sure that La Trinidad finally lands in the Guinness Book of World Records for its giant strawberry cake.

For its part, the Department of Tourism is shelling out P500,000 for this year’s baking feat.