Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Officials have to eat centennial cake cost

What was billed as the world's largest cake surprisingly came with a bill -- $95,000.

A highlight of Las Vegas' centennial weekend celebration, the gigantic yellow cake was originally thought to be a donation from Sara Lee.

But six days before thousands of people built and then ate the cake on May 15, Sara Lee officials told local event organizers that the company would not be donating the cake. Instead, it asked for $115,000.

Officials with the Las Vegas Centennial Celebration Committee, which oversaw the event, said they thought Michael Hyams, who was acting as the middleman between Sara Lee and the centennial officials, had negotiated a deal with Sara Lee to get the cake for free. But that was not the case.

So, the centennial officials talked Sara Lee representatives into accepting $95,000 for the cake. If they hadn't paid, centennial officials said they think there would have been no giant cake for the party celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1905 land auction of what would become the city of Las Vegas.

"We were in a pinch," said Stacy Allsbrook, the executive director of the Las Vegas Centennial Celebration Committee. "We were under the impression there was a contract that covered this, but there wasn't."

Hyams, chief operating officer of a local event coordinating company New Century Entertainment Group, said he did make a mistake but the event turned out well in the end, and still came in under budget.

Hyams said he and Sara Lee officials were talking about a deal in which the company would provide the cake for free in return for the centennial committee publicizing the donation, including mentioning the deal during a special television program that ultimately was not produced.

Then, two or three weeks before the cake was to be eaten, Sara Lee officials said the company would not donate the cake.

"It was my decision and my mistake in the beginning for going so far ahead," Hyams said, referring to there not being a contract with Sara Lee earlier. "That is my fault."

Allsbrook said despite this "expensive hiccup," Hyams did a good job helping with the event and others.

"Logistically it was completely flawless and could not have been done without him," she said about Hyams, who also helped organize the Helldorado Parade and the committee's "Once Upon 100 Weddings" event in which 100 couples were married last week.

"There was frustration, a very high level of frustration, but the bottom line was that the cake was a complete success," Allsbrook said.

Hyams was a volunteer, but Allsbrook said the centennial group decided to pay him almost $1,000 for his work "because he had so much responsibility."

Sara Lee spokeswoman Dawn Mann Charles said the company never agreed to donate the cake, but did deliver it at a great discount.

"Our dialogue all along was that there was a price tag," she said, adding that company officials were surprised to hear that some Las Vegas officials thought the cake would be donated.

Allsbrook said the cake had a retail value of about $250,000.

The $95,000 to pay for the cake came from the committee's budget for the weekend's events, which included the Helldorado Parade, Allsbrook said. The committee had originally budgeted $100,000 for a parade float, but didn't build one, and so that money was available, she said. The Centennial Committee receives its funding from private sponsors and the proceeds from sales of centennial license plates.

Even with the unexpected cost, Allsbrook said the cake was well worth the price.

The cake made news reports across the country and internationally, in more than 350 news reports across the world, she said.

"It was a small price to pay for the value of the media attention we got," she said. "The attention it garnered in the media was 100 times what we paid for it."

There is still no word from the Guinness Book of World Records officials on whether Las Vegas' 131,000-pound cake truly was the largest ever. Allsbrook said that announcement could take several weeks.

The current record is held by a 128,750-pound cake that was made in Ft. Payne, Ala., according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The 30,240 half-sheets that made up Las Vegas' centennial cake were baked in Tarboro, N.C., and trucked to Las Vegas, where volunteers assembled the seven-layer cake.

The cake was 102 feet long and 52 feet wide, and people ate one-third to half of the cake.

The tons of leftover cake were hauled to RC Farms in North Las Vegas, where it was fed to the pigs.

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