Thousands of quilt-enthusiasts came together in west Kentucky Thursday to marvel at the craftsmanship of quilting--and what The American Quilter’s Society calls the ‘World’s Largest Quilt Cake.”
It was the second day of Fall AQS QuiltWeek in Paducah. When attendees stepped into the Julian M. Carroll Convention Center they were greeted by a four- by eight-feet cake, topped with a sewing machine, quilting tools and Vera Bradley bags--all made out of fondant. Mauro Castano is the baker behind the cake and a pastry chef featured on TLC’s Cake Boss. Castano said baking and quilting are interconnected.
“We’re real artistic in our own ways. Chefs are artistic with food, bakers are artistic in the way they decorate and make the cake, and these people are artistic in the way they do,” Costano said. “And a lot of stuff they do with the quilting we do.”
The cake is one-layer chocolate, one-layer vanilla, separated by chocolate fudge. Costano said everything on the cake was hand-painted and hand-cut, with some pieces taking roughly three weeks to produce. Castano said the cake took four days to put together and thirteen hours to deliver from New Jersey.
“Some of the pieces have to be pre-painted, dried, painted again. It’s a little bit of a process,” Costano said.
When the time came to cut the cake, Castano asked a crowd of of more than one hundred if anyone watched Cake Boss.
“You all know what Buddy says, right?” Costano said. “Who wants to eat some cake!”
