Adelaide Oval cake created for Crows fan's 50th birthday celebration
An avid Crows football fan has taken his love of Adelaide Oval to a new level, getting a detailed cake of the recently redeveloped oval made for his 50th birthday celebration.
The South Australian Government spent more than $500 million on its upgrade of the stadium, which was unveiled almost a year ago when an Ashes cricket Test was held at the oval.
But Adelaide cake maker Tonia Cristarella spent considerably less and took just four days to recreate the oval in detailed, but edible, form for footy fan Joe Barbaro, who has been to all of this year's Crows matches at the city venue.
Ms Cristarella said it was one of the more unusual challenges her Adelaide business had taken on for a customer.
"He wanted something special for his 50th birthday. He's an avid Crows supporter and his wife suggested something to do with the Crows. He dearly wanted the Adelaide Oval, he just thinks the redevelopment is wonderful," she said.
"So I took on the challenge and came up with this amazing cake."
Ms Cristarella said it took a bit of research and some creative effort to ensure the structure did not collapse before, or at, the birthday celebration.
"The most difficult [aspect] was the sails, the sails that shade all those wonderful fans - they're all made out of fondant which of course needs drying time and [I had to] organise some type of structure to hold them up," she said.
"It's just a matter of finding things to lay the fondant on to get that shape ... to make it look as realistic as you possibly can ... and making sure your icing's dried."
'Hundreds and thousands' of footy fans
The Adelaide cake maker said another challenge was how to fill the oval with a football crowd and she opted to use hundreds and thousands.
"I really did just want to get red, yellow and blue [Crows colours] hundreds and thousands, but my husband actually drew the line there," she said.
"He said 'there's no way I'm going to sort through all those'."
Over four days, Ms Cristarella mixed the ingredients, baked the cake and then waited for it to cool before "putting in all [the] finer details".
"I was lucky enough to get it to the venue without any breakages," she said.
Was she upset once the knife went into her creation?
"It's meant to be eaten, and it's beautiful to look at but it's really delicious as well," she said.
"I'm really happy when people enjoy it. That's what it's made for."
The cake maker said Mr Barbaro was less upset about cutting his special cake than some of the brides she has baked for over the years.
"I do lots of wonderful wedding cakes and I do have [times] when my brides will not cut their wedding cakes," she said.
