The making of the world’s largest cassava cake

TheCable: You claim to have been inspired to go on by the president. We find that interesting.

Dauda: It’s true. Since President Jonathan became president, his administration has been labouring to convince Nigerians that 10% cassava flour in bread is good for the stomach, good for the pocket of the cassava farmer, good for the economy, and good for our image as a nation because wise nations try as much as possible to consume things they produce. Interestingly, the president recognised quite early that, although cassava is an agricultural produce, it is technology (especially home grown technology) that will enable him achieve his laudable objective of making cassava a money spinner in Nigeria. No wonder, Akinwunmi Adesina, the minister of agriculture, has become a regular visitor to the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO). This is because he agrees with the fact that, in the matter of cassava and its optimum utilisation, FIIRO is a critical stakeholder.

N10 billion is a lot of money and that is exactly the amount this government recently set aside to support cassava.

Like I earlier hinted, it was in order to give a global boost to the cassava initiative of the federal government and encourage the government in achieving its goal that my company, Reesemau Concept Limited, conceptualised the idea of baking the World’s Largest Cassava Cake using 100% cassava flour. Since seeing is believing, we were convinced that Nigerians and the world at large would be impacted more by what they see than by what they hear. But, of course, the challenge was how to bake such a massive cake using flour sourced from cassava alone and nothing else. That was where FIIRO came into the picture.

Today, Nigeria, as the largest producer of cassava in the world, has got the commensurate honour of unveiling the World’s Largest Cassava Cake. This is very appropriate and should make Nigerians proud. Why should another country be the one to bake the World’s Largest Cassava Cake?

I want people to understand that the unveiling of the World’s Largest Cassava Cake is an announcement to Nigerians that cassava is much more than we think; it is also an announcement to the international community that Nigerian cassava is viable. People like to say that “whatever a man can do, a woman can do even better”. Well, here, we are saying that “whatever wheat flour can do, cassava flour can do even better”. Only time stands between what we have now and the realisation of this dream.

TheCable: You keep calling it the World’s Largest Cassava Cake. Any authentication from Guinness World Records?

Dauda: We fervently hope that Guinness World Records will come to terms with cassava as an ingredient for making cake and award us the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Cassava Cake. I can authoritatively inform your readers that, for now, Guinness World Records does not recognise cassava as an ingredient for making cake. This was why they gave us an option to make another cake when we applied for this record. But rather than discourage us, we took this up as a challenge so that the world will get to reckon with the fact that there is such a thing known as cassava cake. We shall present our evidence to Guinness World Records and see how it goes.

TheCable: So, what is the weight of this cake and how are we sure it is the largest cake in the world?

Dauda: Well, to the best of our knowledge, the largest cassava cake ever made in the world, before Tuesday, October 14, 2014, was a 1-ton cake made in Dingras, a second class municipality in Ilocos Notre, Philippines. This cake was baked in 2007 to give a spark to the area after a devastating typhoon that affected the area in 2001.

The World’s Largest Cassava Cake baked in Nigeria is at least 2 tonnes, as shown by the following, which are just some of the ingredients that were used to bake the cake:

• 8 bags of 50kg cassava flour
• 60 buckets of 10kg Topper butter
• 7 bags of 50kg sugar
• 350 crates of eggs
• 25 tins of baking powder
• 25 litres of flavour
• 1 bag of milk
• 100 cartons of ready-made fondant

Other ingredients with indefinite weights were:

• Icing sugar
• Vegetable shortening
• Edible spirit
• Corn starch
• Pan release
• Air brush colour (white, brown, and green)
• Disco dust

It is important to note that a very high standard of hygiene was observed all through the process of baking as bakers and volunteers alike were draped in aprons and face masks and were constantly washing their hands.

TheCable: So, does this mean bad news for wheat flour manufacturers?

Dauda: Not really. This could be a win-win situation for wheat flower makers. Seeing the direction of the government and people of Nigeria, all they need to do is wake up to the new reality and make cassava part of their flour. They could even give the public options: wheat flour mixed with cassava flour and wheat flour without cassava flour. Choice is the beauty of a free market and I think it is high time this move is made. I don’t know if they are doing that right now but I will not be surprised to hear that.