Benguet capital makes history with 2 giant strawberry cakes

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — This capital town of Benguet made history again yesterday when it whipped up two giant strawberry cakes, which nearly 28,000 people partook of.

This was the second year that La Trinidad, known as the country’s "strawberry and rose capital," hosted a strawberry festival.

The bigger strawberry cake measured about 8.5 x 6 x 6 feet, and the other, 6.5 x 4 x 5 feet. The two cakes weighed a total of 3,500 kilos and cost P175,300.

Used to make the giant cakes were 800 kilos of fresh strawberries, 500 kilos of white sugar, 6,000 whole eggs, 35 sacks of all-purpose flour, 20 kilos of baking powder, five kilos of salt, 200 bottles of McCormick strawberry extract, three bottles of red food color, 860 cans of Carnation milk, 750 bars of Anchor butter and 220 boxes of icing cream.

La Trinidad Mayor Nestor Fongwan expressed gratitude to strawberry farmers from the town’s 16 barangays for donating their produce.

"Their support is invaluable. All the strawberries needed for the cake are donations from them. They could have just sold their products but they chose to sacrifice their income for the success of this event," he told reporters.

Chefs Eric Espadero of Valley Bread and Nonette Fontanilla and Joy Chamos of Cranberry prepared the giant cakes.