Worlds Largest SOHC - DAY 4

For all the action watch each day as it unfolds on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/planetcaketv

It’s the end of day 4 at PC, where we are still attempting to make the worlds largest Sydney Opera House! This was make or break time, the goal was to have all of the sculpting completed by the end of the day so that the cake could set over night and we could cover it with icing tomorrow! However there were a few hiccups, and we are now definitely one day behind schedule.



Today was all about sculpting the Opera House, all we needed to do was sculpt the shape out of the cake ‘blocks’ representing the twin sails of the Opera House.



The Tenors were on the morning shift and came in raring to go, they attacked the second smaller set of sails with gusto and managed to have it layered and set up quickly, it was not finished when everyone left the night before so they did some great catch up work.





Meanwhile back at the ranch the sculpting on the larger sails was moving slowly as Jean-Michel and two talented volunteers struggled with the shape of the Opera House. However as much as JM tried something was wrong! An hour ticked by.



Conclusion: the internal boards of the cake were too big, giving us 'dummy' lines to follow. This meant that instead of relying on measurements and computer programs we would have to revert to the old fashioned method of carving by sight. Unfortunately we had lost valuable time and work was stalled until the problem could be resolved. In addition carving the Opera House by sight nearly fried everyone’s brains…..just look at the thing!




Carving by sight is made even more difficult when you recognize that the Opera House does not have a flat base, the sails are going up by increments at the front. We then all agreed that we could only do it by using the sail styro foam tips as a guide and matching the base cake to the tips. This was a problem was they had not been carved yet!! Everyone raced to the styro cave………………..





Now we had the tips we could start carving, it was by now 3pm, we had lost hours of project time! With only 1.5 hours to go, this is what the cake looked like. We had to make some progress and fast.



After an intensive pow wow meeting…………..Jean Michel managed to weave some magic. Although we needed each set of sails finished, at this point it was a huge achievement to get to this stage and required great problem solving skills and some super talented cake decorating.





While sculpting was stalled there was still work to be done, one tedious but enjoyable decorating job is making ‘little people’. The goal is to create at least 200 of them! By the way we are not employing minors, the 7 year old red-head is my daughter Estelle!








The volunteers today were just like having the Planet Cake team, they are the best people I have worked with for some time….and they are more professional than most decorators I have met.




However signs of stress were definitely starting to appear!!





A huge thank you to Jono, who with little sleep has carved styro foam, made boards, created templates, calculated cake volume, learned how to ganache a cake in 5 minute and without whom we probably could not have done this project!


By some type of miracle Jean-Michel and the volunteers managed to get the cake to this point before we left all dog tired and unable to look at the building for much longer without risking brain paralysis, although we are behind schedule I am thrilled with the shape and watching this beast of a cake emerge from its ‘block’.



Tomorrow we must must must,…………..catch up, its an early start of 6am for many here at SOHC headquarters. Wish us luck!!

DAY TWO: OPERATION WORLDS BIGGEST SOH Cake!

ME: I don't want to peak too early, today is day two and I feel haggard...need to sleep well and get a clear head before tomorrow, there will be so much to do. This is a photo of me, I am going down hill fast in the sanity department, although I do find this all weather attire useful!

WEATHER: A hot muggy day in Sydney, reality was sweating outside in the sun and making the styro cave like an oven

WHERE: Planet Cake’s studio 10 minutes from the CBD



Margie: It was Margie turn to shine today as she raced around carving styro, measuring, making the Bennelong Rest (small sails at the back) and getting everything she possibly could set up for us to be able to continue with ease tomorrow. A huge thank you Margie from me and the rest of the team, in a project like this it is incredibly valuable to have your experience and work ethic, you now have our permission to race off to your daughter’s wedding!!







Emma: I knew that I had a little gem when I hired Emma, but she is a diamond, absolutely fabulous in managing all the crew, dealing with stress, constantly changing plans and ME!!






PC Staff: All of the rest of the staff were in today and everyone is looking forward to tomorrow when we get cracking with the actual building.






ADDITIONAL CREW: Jono worked last night until very late, making sure we had our templates and the base boards to work from! He is still here now as I write this blog drilling the centre poles along the spine of the Opera House sails so that we can start building tomorrow.






The sopranos are a light and efficient team; they would definitely be the snow leopards of the crew, especially with their never ending passion for styro and all things difficult! We will be interviewing members of each team every day for face book and our update blog so stay tuned!







The Tenors have been on afternoon shift and as we have been waiting for the boards to be cut they have been left with only bits and pieces to do. The pace has slowed somewhat. I have given them a challenge to catch up top speed, tomorrow they will be on morning shift and the first to start constructing the cake. If they can get to the third layer of cake on the biggest sails before the end of their shift, then I will wear an “ILOVE THE TENORS” T-shirt and heart tattoos for the rest of the day…I did notice they leapt into action quite promptly.

DAY #2 PLAN:

Today was the day we collected the Styrofoam for the base and carved it, this was Margie’s domain so of course this was done! I had a sleepless night last night worrying about everything else! We needed drawings for the in-between boards, the boards cut and covered with vinyl and the centre poles in place before we could start building (layering) the cake. Unfortunately everything was done, but the cetrepoles not in place (just time constraints) so our plans for today were out the window in terms of actually starting on the cake and as a result we have carved the sails, made the 6inch dowels and made little people we will need at least 100!










TOMORROW: Jono Will finish the centre poles tonight (he is working on them now) this means that we can start layering the cake first thing. We need the cake completely sculpted and carved by Saturday night, so tomorrow will be crucial in making up time! Comon Tenors, I need you to break the back of it tomorrow morning!