World's longest Yule log cake baked in China

Three weeks away from Christmas, Shanghai has already gulped down the world’s longest Yule log cake. We hardly dare imagine what will come next.

Chefs at Shanghai’s Pudong Shangri-La Hotel created a new Guinness World Record by baking the world’s longest Yule log cake, which stretched 1,068 meters on the first floor between the hotel’s two towers -- Grand Tower and River Wing.

The majority of the cake was put up for sale for RMB 2 per centimeter and, according to Shangri-La, it sold out in under three hours. Most buyers were office workers from the neighborhood.

The profit of the Yule log cake has yet to be announced. But all proceeds will go to benefit four children at Shanghai Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, who are in need of chemotherapy.

24 hours, 156 tables and 904 eggs

Around 150 hotel staff members worked with 80 pastry chefs for 24 hours -- from the morning of November 30 -- to prepare and set up the cake.

Staff set up 156 tables, each 1.8 meters long, side-by-side to carry the king-size dessert.

Shangri-La did not disclose the total cost of the Yule log cake, but the amount of each ingredient may give you some clue.

• 633 liters of fresh cream
• 401 kilos of chocolate
• 904 eggs
• 203 kilos of cane sugar
• 34 kilos of vanilla 
• 1,045 kilos of wheat flour
• 34 kilos of lemons
• 37 kilos of cherries
• 106 kilos of almond paste
• 379 kilos of icing sugar

“We hope this event will kick start Shanghai's Christmas season this year,” said Pudong Shangri-La's Communications Manager Christie Chen, "as Yule log cake is a Christmas specialty food."

The hotel’s original target was to make an 888-meter cake because eight is a lucky number in China and it sounds like “getting rich.”

“That length was our estimation but we were not sure how much cake we could really make with that amount of ingredients,” continued Chen. "When the judge from Guinness World Records measured the cake he announced it had reached 1,068 meters."

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The previous Guinness World Record Yule log cake was made in France in 2010, and only measured 207.8 meters.

Cheng Dong (程东), Guinness World Records' representative for Greater China, witnessed the final moments of the cake-making at Shanghai Shangri-La and announced the new record at 10:30 a.m. on December 1.