You can eat this replica of Ng Teng Fong Hospital
This whopping cake contains a replica of Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH), which began operations yesterday.
The 2m by 70cm by 45cm creation boasted three chocolate buildings of the Jurong Health group - Specialist Outpatient Clinics, NTFGH and Jurong Community Hospital.
"It's the largest cake I have ever made," said pastry chef Daniel Chan, 60, who took two and a half weeks to finish it,with the help of an assistant.
He was commissioned by Jurong Health to make the gigantic cake for an event last month.
When contacted, Jurong Health would say only that the cake was made for an internal event.
Mr Chan added black food colouring to white chocolate to make the building's grey exteriors. He then meticulously shaped the chocolate buildings with cardboard moulds.
Fondant icing was carefully cut and pasted onto the blocks to create the many different levels of the buildings, which sit on a rectangular base of fresh-cream-covered sponge cake.
Mr Chan and his former employer, JP Pepperdine, collaborated to make the cake, which weighed slightly more than 100kg.
The freelance pastry chef, who has been in the industry for 44 years, said that he spent eight hours a day making the cake, which was meant for 400 to 500 people.
CHALLENGING TASK
Mr Chan crafted the cake in JP Pepperdine's headquarters as he did not have his own space.
It also required large amounts of ingredients, including German white chocolate and fresh cream and Swiss fondant. (See report on right.)
It is the second time Mr Chan has made a cake replica for Jurong Health. The first cake replica of the same building made a few years ago was an even more challenging task, he said.
"We only had architectural drawings and pictures to refer to and we had to imagine what the actual building looked like," said Mr Chan.
The pastry chef is no stranger to cake replicas and has made one almost every decade: the Hotel New Hong Kong in the 1970s , Marco Polo Hotel in the 1980s, Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant in the 1990s, and James Cook University's Singapore campus in Upper Thomson Road in the 2000s.
Mr Chan said that the best part of making his latest cake was seeing the finished product.
"I feel happy that everything is nicely done and the parts of the cake are well-fitted.
"It's not every day there is such an order, so there's a sense of achievement and satisfaction in completing it," he said.
THE MAMMOTH CAKE, BY THE NUMBERS
100kg
The cake weighs more than an average adult male.
80kg
Amount of German white chocolate used.
15kg
Amount of Swiss white fondant used.
12litres
Amount of fresh cream slathered on the sponge cake and sandwiched between its layers.
10kg
Pasteurised liquid eggs used for the sponge cake.
17.5days
Amount of time taken to make the cake.
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