AOkay, so in August I will be making a 150 ft. long cake, if anyone has any experience in large cakes I could use some pointers. Curious on when I should start baking and decorating the cake? I have a while to plan, it will be covered in fondant as well. And what would be the best way to store the cakes. Our town is celebrating 150 years and I work at the small town bakery so they asked our bakery to do it. There is limited freezer space/cooler space as we share with the deli. Thanks in advanced for any input!

My first thought:  "Make it really skinny!"

AHow many portions are needed?

Give serious thought to logistics...how it will be transported etc.  I hope you have a BIG bakery :-)  Depending on the portions needed, I would probably look at RKT as part of it.  Not only is it not going to go stale but it is much lighter.  I have never done anything like this before but would love the logistical challenge!  Depending on the design, maybe you could do something which was made in 4ft pieces and then slotted together? x

You will definitely have to slot them together. You have your work cut out for you!! Be sure and post a picture. WOW!!! This is going to be a very big job!!!

As was mentioned in another reply do think seriously about how this will be transported.  You will have to do all the work on it on site.  What a job that will be!!

Though nowhere near 150 ft. you might be some insight from this cake I made. 

http://www.cakecentral.com/g/i/1383530/a/1384530/

The boards it sites on were specially cut/made plywood, covered w/a plastic tablecloth.

I have also made 6'x4"x4" cakes: baked 12x18 sheets, cut in 1/2 (lengthwise) butted together end to end before icing w/b'cream).

Since you say you have a bakery you probably have full sheet pans?  Don't remember the exact size of them but bake up as many sheets as you need to cover the 150 ft. working each one separately (cover w/fondant & possibly do some if not all the decorating on the top) so they can be transported. Then just butt them up together on site and finish off the borders. 

AI suggest 150 cupcakes. :D Good luck!

Quote:

Did a google search and found The world's longest ever Christmas cake (3,504 foot) and stollen (236 ft 6.58 in). 

Reading the information gives an idea of some of the logistics needed for your 150 foot long cake. 

http://www.worldrecordacademy.com/food/longest_Christmas_cake_Pudong_Shangri-la_Hotel_sets_world_record_112610.html

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150-foot cake is centerpiece of Sikeston sesquicentennial celebration

"It will take 139 9-by-13-inch cakes lined up next to each other to create the big cake, said Brandon Kuehn, executive director of the Historic Midtown Development Group, the sponsor of the 150th birthday bash."

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1649380.html

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As asked above, "How many servings?"  

If you used 9"x5"x3" loaf pans, for instance, you would need 200 loaf-pan-cakes put together end-to-end to create a 150 foot cake.  This would yield 1800, 1"x5"x3" servings. 

If you used a small square pan, 8"x8"x2", you would need 225 of these pans put together end-to-end to create a 150 foot cake.  This would yield 3600    2"x2"x2" servings. 

As mentioned in the article above, "It will take 139 9-by-13-inch cakes lined up next to each other to create the big cake..."   [SHEET CAKES Single Layer, no filling (serving size is 2x2x2) 9x13 = 24 servings]   or 3336 servings.

The lack of freezer space may be a huge problem.  Where are you located?  Will it be hot or humid in August?  Will the cake(s) be outside or in a refrigerated building?  Have you figured out how many tables will be required for a 150 foot cake? Fondant alone will cost a fortune for that many cakes--buttercream may be a more inexpensive option, but, buttercream may melt if it is hot/humid.

I would recommend doing a lot more research on the logistics before you commit.

.........-buttercream may be a more inexpensive option, but, buttercream may melt if it is hot/humid.............

I have worked 95% in b'cream and NEVER had any problems with it melting!  Granted only one time can I remember it being humid but still that cake did not melt.

And my recipe uses 50/50 Crisco and butter.

I worked on a huge project once with three other experienced bakers. You'll really need to map out every detail. While this sounds like a terrific opportunity, the size and scope might not be feasible. This project needs a team of bakers. I suggest you speak with your employer, who may not be aware of what's needed in terms of manpower and space. If there's only one experienced baker (you?) leading the project, that leader will not have much time to do hands on work. Scaling back or finding an alternative that matches the theme of 150, should be explored. 

AThe lack of freezer space may be a huge problem.  Where are you located?  Will it be hot or humid in August?  Will the cake(s) be outside or in a refrigerated building?  Have you figured out how many tables will be required for a 150 foot cake? Fondant alone will cost a fortune for that many cakes--buttercream may be a more inexpensive option, but, buttercream may melt if it is hot/humid.

I would recommend doing a lot more research on the logistics before you commit. [/quote]

I am located in southern Minnesota. So its probably going to be warm but definitely not hot in August. It will be outside, the manager of the store wants to put this on. He's not worried about the cost because he thinks it will gain more customers for the store. Definitely haven't figured out table size either. I am the only one that pays attention to detail...so I want to be the one actually decorating the cakes as we will be putting buildings of milestones of the town on the cake. For example, for the first one it will be the town as it looked when it was founded. Or when they put the new water park in.

AAlso, just wanted to say thanks for all the replies! I wasn't aware it had this many comments. I recently got hired at this bakery, and am changing things around. I prefer homemade items, and all of their cake comes frozen such as round, halfsheet and cupcakes. Frosting comes in a block and you just mix with water. We are now starting to make homemade butter cream (50 criso/50 butter) and we bake our own cupcakes now. This is a huge task, I am the head cake decorator and there is only one other, there is a baker and a few other staff in bakery that only deal with packaging items. But this is what the owner wants so he will have to come up with the supplies and storage if he wants it done.

AAre you going to actually feed people with this cake or is it just going to be displayed? Why not make it out of dummies?

Sounds as though the best plan may be to figure out all the logistics on paper, the costs associated with, for instance, 139   9x13 sheet cakes, the employee hours, the timing and inability to do ANY other bakery work for "xxx" hours/days/weeks because of this project.

Using frozen cakes and commercial frosting/fondant is the best possible idea for cost/staffing purposes, but, will the taste actually bring in more customers?

Once you present the bakery owner with the report (do it on work time and charge the bakery for the hours it took to prepare the report), the bakery may find that the project is NOT financially feasible if the primary goal is to "find more customers for the store".   People love FREE cake.  That does not necessarily translate into more customers.

If the project ends up with a staff/supply/ingredient cost of $1,000 (just picked a random number out of the air), how many NEW customers will it take to recoup that $1,000?   Simply from the business perspective, not the baking/decorating/taste perspective, I'm guessing this is not a viable business opportunity.  My first assumption when reading the first post was that the town council had "hired" the bakery. 

AGood idea, and yes it is to feed people. And it is free cake I think he is thinking, hey...we made a huge cake, look what our bakery can do. I want to say he is on the city council as well. But I'm not sure. I just know that he wanted to break the world record in the longest cake but we told him that the longest cake was 8,000 and something feet. He said we will just stick with our original plan of 150.

He's lucky he hired you so you can do the thinking....