ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608190089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR AND JON CAWLEY STAFF WRITERS
NOTE: Below
A BAKER'S DREAM - or maybe nightmare - helped feed the crowd as Roanoke celebrated its All America City award.
A big cake for a big celebration.
No, a huge cake. For a huge party.
Hundreds gathered in the City Market Saturday night to celebrate Roanoke's selection as an All America City. There were bands, cake, speeches, line dancing, Miss Virginia and Mayor David Bowers' off-key renditions of "God Bless America" and "For She's a Jolly Good City."
But don't say he didn't warn you. "If you don't want to hear me sing, you'll have to drown me out," he said before launching into America's song, which brought most to their feet to join in.
More on the mayor later. For now, let's talk cake. Lots of cake.
It was a delight for the serious sweet tooth and a dieter's worst nightmare: 200 pounds of flour, 200 cups of sugar, 96 eggs, 24 cups of baking powder, 48 tablespoons of salt, 96 cups of dry milk, 8 cups of vanilla.
Several hundred hours to plot. Eight hours to bake. Five hours to cut, assemble and ice.
Tom Powers, director of food services for the Roanoke school system, was wrist-deep in cake for nearly a week. If he never sees another slice, another crumb, it'll be just fine with him.
Powers was approached a month ago about baking a cake for Saturday's celebration of Roanoke's fifth All America City award.
It would be a slight departure from the usual requests for cakes he receives.
This one had to feed at least 1,000 - and resemble the Mill Mountain Star. This is how it was done:
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At high noon Saturday at Fallon Park Elementary School in Southeast Roanoke, Powers and four employees from his department loaded up two vans and one four-wheel-drive vehicle with the goods - 41 single-layer 181/4" x 26" pans of cake, eight large metal pans of icing, tubs of shortening and a container of whisks and spatulas.
The air conditioners were running to keep the interiors cool. Wouldn't want the plastic wrap covering the sheet cakes to melt, warned Amy Casteel, a food services coordinator, as she stacked pan upon pan.
Casteel had baked cakes for large crowds before - 600 at the most. But usually a flat sheet cake, never a shaped cake, much less a star.
The bakers kind of winged it, drawing on their culinary talents to meet the challenge.
They built star-shaped forms out of plywood - a large one measuring about 6 feet from star point to star point, a slightly smaller middle star to set on top of the largest one and a third star, even smaller, to sit atop the middle star.
On Monday, the team baked a prototype cake and spent hours after work toying with the baked goods, measuring and carving and constructing. When they were through, they'd found a way to build a cake in the shape of the Mill Mountain Star.
But you wouldn't have wanted to eat it - not the prototype. They baked it Monday and threw it away Friday.
"We put our hands all over it," Powers said. "We were literally marking on it, setting plywood on it. We left it sitting out for several days uncovered."
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At 1:30 p.m. at Fire Station No.1 on Church Avenue, near the Roanoke City Market, the goods were unloaded. The star-shaped plywood forms, covered with foil, sat on a table draped with white linen.
The cake team members were in full swing.
They cut two layers of the five large star points from 10 cake pans. The rest - scraps - were tossed in cardboard boxes or saved to fill broken bits and cracks.
An oscillating fan, blowing at full speed, sent the smell of vanilla through the station.
Slowly, the largest star took shape - the five points, then the star's center, then the second layer. Globs of white icing "glued" the first layer to the second.
Off to the side, Powers and Lula Snyder, food services courier, assembled the smallest star. Food services coordinators Shauna Thurston and Kristin Wirt pieced together the middle star, moist side down for better icing.
The tip of one star point fell to the ground. They cut a corner from a spare sheet of cake and tacked it on with icing.
By 3:30, each of the stars was covered with smooth strokes of white icing. By 4, the stars were assembled, one on top of the other.
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At 4:30 p.m., targeted completion time, the cake wasn't finished.
Casteel painstakingly piped blue icing on the cake through a star-shaped metal tip attached to a bag stuffed with icing.
"It's 4:30!'' Powers shouted. Casteel responded by humming the "Jeopardy" theme.
The curious wandered in for a peek. Some of them lingered and raided a cake pan that held a growing mound of cake scraps.
A toddler dipped her finger in a pan of red icing and shoved it in her mouth. She smiled.
"Have more?" she asked.
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At 5:30 p.m., it was done.
Casteel raised her hands, covered in blue icing. She feigned a fall into a three-tiered red, white and blue cake replica of the Mill Mountain Star.
Powers wiped crumbs of icing and cake into his hand. He wet a towel and dabbed away stray pieces of blue icing on the white cake.
Then he half-joked: "If Roanoke wins this again, we'll be glad to make an even bigger cake. We'll double this cake."
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At 7:30 p.m., a crowd of celebrants waited patiently outside the firehouse for Bowers and other city officials to cut and serve the cake and ice cream. The line snaked by the front doors and extended to Market Street.
Xavier L. Fox and his kids, Justin, Kevin-Mitchell, Ashley and Stephon, were the first in line to receive slices.
"It's a good cake; the red is anyway. I'll have to come back and check out the blue later," Xavier Fox said.
And there was no question it tasted better since Bowers was serving, Fox said. "It's got All American flavor; tender as mother's love."
Pat and Edie Shelor weren't first, but still lucky. They only had to wait a couple of minutes to taste the huge red, white and blue cake.
"The timing was right, and the cake is beautiful," Pat Shelor said. "I haven't had a Dixie cup in I don't know how many years."
Success.
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At 8:30 p.m., a crowd of several hundred people was crowded in front of the stage set up on Campbell Avenue. Line dancing, face painting and free drinks were entertaining the celebrants waiting for the All America City presentation to begin.
The 10-minute video - describing the renovation and transformation of Jefferson High School and the Roanoke Hotel, and the newly designed trash transfer station and trash train - rehashed earlier themes expressed by All America City juror and Roanoke native Pat McGinnis.
"Achieving results in the public interest" is why Roanoke won, she said. "Roanoke is a model for cities across the country."
Bowers echoed McGinnis' thoughts on Roanoke. "Here in Roanoke we don't sit back in easy chairs and complain," he said. "Working together has become a way of life."
The Roanokers in attendance were in total agreement, though many cited the valley's beauty as their favorite feature.
"The Roanoke Valley is probably one of the prettiest spots anywhere," Bud Wright said. "And I've traveled around a lot."
Michelle McGeath said some guests who came to town for her wedding liked Roanoke so much that they tried to get jobs here.
McGinnis summed up Roanoke's success in a remark made earlier in the night: "Leadership comes in many ages, colors and walks of life."
Saturday, Roanoke proved that statement applies to its people as well, as they partied into the night to celebrate the Star City.
LENGTH: Long : 147 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY Staff. Kristin Wirt (from left), Amy Casteelby CNBand Shauna Thurston put the final touches on the cake. color.