Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 25, 1992 TAG: 9202250260
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By MELISSA DeVAUGHN
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
LINKOUS REALLY TAKES THE CAKE FOR READING MONTH
One little girl raised her hand asking, "How'd they get that big oven for it?"Another child asked if she could have the whole thing, icing and all.
And one little boy, whose eyes were staring in disbelief, turned to Kimberle Badinelli and asked, "You made the whole thing all by yourself?"
Actually the big cake, weighing in at 390 pounds, required the work of more than one person. Badinelli, president of the Gilbert Linkous Elementary School PTA and manager of training and development in Culinary Services at Virginia Tech, organized the effort, but a total of 365 work hours were contributed to the project.
The people in the Culinary Services graphics department helped design the cake, workers in Culinary Services helped bake the cakes and more than 15 student volunteers from the Hospitality Management Association from Tech's Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management assembled the cake and added the finishing touches.
"I like to do big things," Badinelli said. "Governor Wilder has asked state employees to get involved in the education of our children and we have. This is an effort between organizations to encourage elementary schools [children] to read."
The 9-foot by 11-foot cake is the culminating event to reading month at the school. It contains 800 eggs, 60 quarts of water and 80 cups of oil, dominating the entire stage at Gilbert Linkous Elementary School.
"It's a big cake that serves about 2,000 " Badinelli said. "It'll take the kids three, four days to go through it - if they eat a piece every day."
A cake this big didn't come easy. The Hospitality Management Association students worked all weekend preparing it. The giant cake is actually 40 smaller sheet cakes placed side-by-side. Badinelli said they were glued together with icing to look like one big cake.
The cake was decorated with the Olympic rings and an Olympic medal. Also painted in icing was the shape of an open book. The cake read, "Go for the Gold; be an Olympic reader" and "Gilbert Linkous Reading Month, 1992."
Matt Cooperman, 21, a senior in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management, was another organizer of the project. He said the tricky part wasn't making the cakes, but gluing them together with the icing.
"The hardest thing was coordinating the layout of cakes and letters," said Cooperman. "And the tables kept sliding apart and the cake would separate. We also had a couple of really close calls, leaning into the cake [to decorate it] - we almost fell into it."
Third grader Jenny Rose, 8, said the cake was "the biggest cake I've ever seen," but she had "a second biggest one for my fifth birthday."
Andre Watson, 8, said he planned on eating four pieces even though he wished it was chocolate, not yellow cake.
"But, I'd eat it no matter what it is," he said.
Badinelli said the entire project was worth the time and energy put into it because it makes the children happy.
"Their faces are flabbergasted," she said. "That's the part I like the best."