Olive Tree kitchen manager Lisa Downs (right) with residents Win McDonald and Edie Martin and a phenomenal Christmas cake.
Is it a cake or is it a sculpture? For the past two years Lisa Downs, kitchen manager at Palmerston North's Olive Tree Village rest home has come up with a special Christmas cake for the residents.
The cake custom may be only two years old, but Downs' Christmas creations have already cemented themselves as an Olive Tree tradition, and there was great anticipation about what she would come up with this year.
Last week, Downs unveiled another masterpiece. The "mark III" cake was a towering spire made up of 103 separate cakes.
Olive Tree's Xmas cake.
"I wanted to come up with something they had never seen before," she said.
"It took about two months working in my own time baking, icing, decorating and constructing."
Downs started the planning process in January, trying to come up with an idea that would better the three cakes, each expressing a different yuletide theme, she had put together for Christmas 2016.
The Olive Tree Village Xmas Cake created by kitchen manager Lisa Downs, with Win McDonald with Edie Martin (seated).
In this year's creation there are 101 smaller cakes, topped by two larger ones. The smaller cakes, made to a traditional Christmas cake recipe and smothered in decorative almond icing, will be given as gifts to residents.
It might come as a surprise, but as far as cake making and decorating was concerned, Downs had no formal training.
"I have never had a lesson. I was a dairy farmer's wife from Norsewood before I started baking here. I just wanted to make something for the residents."
Downs is already thinking about what it will take to top this cake next year.
Village Manager Robyn Ballard said the cakes were made with rest home ingredients, but the time devoted to them was all Downs' own.
"The residents really look forward to what she has made. Every year they get bigger and better," Ballard said.
The only concerns seemed to be whether despite the "Do not touch" sign, the smaller cakes could be resisted by passing tradies, or residents for that matter, and would the tower meet earthquake standards. The cakes remained on display over the weekend and would be shared with Olive Tree residents this week.
- Stuff.co.nz
https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/99763462/Towering-Christmas-cake-created-for-Olive-Tree-rest-home-residents