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Giant Rio confection takes the cake

Giant Rio confection takes the cake

As birthdays go it takes the cake.

Revelers at Rio's 450th birthday party bash this Sunday are licking their lips at the prospect of devouring a slice of a 450-meter-long (1,500 feet) cake.

And if the 2.1 tons of sugar don't give you a head rush, the scale of the ingredients will: 2.5 tons of flour; 3,000 eggs; 1,000 liters of milk -- and as much again of whipped cream.

The Society of Friends of Carioca Street (Sarca) baked the 100,000 reais ($35,000) cake, Rio's biggest ever.

Sarca members will sing "happy birthday" before cutting up their mammoth creation and handing out pieces at a ceremony overseen by party "queen" Rafaella Lemes.

This year's celebration is an extension of the just-ended Rio carnival and will include a "cultural marathon" of exhibitions, workshops and theater extending right through to the Olympics which Rio will host next summer.

Portuguese colonizers founded Rio on March 1, 1565.