It took 71 people and 1,200 hours to make the SAIT Centennial birthday cake Sunday.
When you look at the precision, attention to detail, characters and Play-Doh-like edible icing, you can see why.
At more than 213 centimetres tall with 14 layers, the delicious piece of edible art, designed by SAIT alumna and chef, Rose Warden, didn’t cease to amaze.
Each tier of cake represented a different SAIT department, including Radio, Television and Broadcast news, trades, medical and engineering.
Some tiny graduates and students can found at the bottom of the cake, just outside the legendary Stan Grad Centre (originally referred to as the Heart Building) and the Heritage Building.
Guests had their cake and ate it too during a busy day of festivities to celebrate the centennial year, including ‘Wheels and Wings’ – a car, truck and helicopter show worth between $4 and 5 million, Try-a-Skill — welding, sheet metal work and crane simulator, an international food fair, guided tours of campus and a free concert by Juno award winner Dan Mangan.
“One hundred years ago Calgary was going through it’s biggest boom ever. From 4,000 to over 50,000 people in just over ten years. And it needed a place to provide education for people who weren’t going to university,” David Finch,a historian, said.
Some very well known names have also walked the halls at SAIT, like famous Canadian musician Joni Mitchell.
“She was in the art program and at night she was playing guitar and singing in a coffee shop. Luckily she went on to pursue music, changed her name to Joni Mitchell and went on to become a famous music star,” Finch said.
A time capsule from 1966 was also opened during the special day of looking back.
SAIT was the first publicly-funded technical institute in Canada and has more than 100 career programs and over 1,400 part-time courses (including online and distance).