The world's largest spit cake (Šakotis) baked in Lithuania

On 30 May, on the initiative of Druskininkai, a famous resort in Southern Lithuania, businessmen and the local authorities, a 3.7-metre-long horned dessert (calleda 'spruce' by international guests) was baked using traditional techniques: manually rotating a huge spit under burning firewood. On the same day, the first spit cake museum in Eastern Europe was opened. It exhibitsthe unique tools used for making this delicious cake.

 According to one of the organisers of the event, Romualdas Spulis, head of Romnesa, UAB, "No wedding or christening in our country takes place without traditional spit cake. It's more than a dessert. During a celebration, a spit cake serves as a table decoration, and at the end of the event it's so much fun to break it and share with relatives. Wouldn't you say it's symbolic?"

Representatives of the Lithuanian and world record agencies were given the following data:

Height: 3.72 m.

Weight: approx. 85,8 kg.

The spit cake was baked using only Lithuanian products:

Eggs: 1,700.

Flour: 64 kg.

Sugar: 48 kg.

Butter: 45 kg.

Sour cream: 29 kg.

Special equipment was designed and manufactured for this occasion:a 4-metre-long wood-fired oven, 4-metre-long and about 1.5-metre-wide tin for the dough, and a 3.7-metre-long spit. The local craftsmen, Laimondas Pukinskas and Aleksandras Sputai, used about 800 kg of metal for their work.

Baking a huge spit cake is a very meticulous and difficult process. Even the smallest mistake can ruin the sweet tower. Inga Januškevičienė, Jolanta Bimbarienė, Aušra Cicėnienė and Marytė Gudonienė, masters of the craft with over 10 years of experience, proved to be up to the task. The spit was rotated by two men, and it took six strong men to carry and put up the finished product.

The festive event was attended by representatives of the local authorities, communities and the media of neighbouring countries, and guests of the Druskininkai season opening celebration. The event’s participants eventually ate the record spit cake.

Legends about the spit cake go back to the time of the Grand Duchess of Lithuania, Barbora Radvilaitė (described by contemporaries as the most beautiful woman in Europe) in the 16th century. The spit cake rose in popularity during the interwar period, and today it also decorates the tables of Lithuanian emigrants all over the world – from the U.S. and Great Britain to Australia and Argentina – as homage to the motherland.

Similar cakes are baked in other countries: Germany, Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Norway and even Japan. The shape and formation of the cake's horns differs though.The previous Lithuanian record – a 2.3-metre-long and 67 kg spit cake – was baked and registered by Romnesa, UAB in the Lithuanian Book of Records in 2008.