News & Events
Professor Hoffman and Crew Take the Cake (All 14 Feet of It!)
to Williamsburg Bridge's 100th Birthday Bash
Hospitality Management Professor Louise Hoffman and City Tech alumnus Anthony Smith '96 (Cosmopolitan Club) at Williamsburg Bridge's 100th birthday bash.
Professor Louise Hoffman and her team of hospitality management alumni and students participated in the 100th birthday celebration for the Williamsburg Bridge in a big way -- they used 150 pounds of confectionery sugar and two gallons of egg whites to construct a giant cake topped with a replica of the bridge.
The 14-foot high cake, underwritten by the Brooklyn Arts Council, Inc. with the sugar provided by Domino Sugar, was displayed on a flatbed truck donated by 4 G's Trucking of Williamsburg at the June 22 celebration for the "Willy B," one of the bridge's many nicknames, which took place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The exhibition cake was made from styrofoam with royal icing. Hoffman and her crew traveled to Bruno Bakery in Long Island City to ice the styrofoam components, which were assembled in the flatbed truck. While royal icing dries as hard as cement, humidity retards the drying process, which presented a problem.
"On the days we worked it was very hot and humid and the icing wouldn't dry. Also, the bakery closed at 5 p.m., which limited the time we had to work on the cake," Hoffman explained. "We worried that we wouldn't be able to finish it in time, but miraculously it got done."
Its size, however, presented some unforeseen problems, she added. "The cake was so big we couldn't get it out of the loading dock elevator at the bakery, so we had to take it apart and do the reassembly once it was extracted from the bakery's elevator shaft!"
The City Tech cake was the showpiece of the celebration, which included music, storytelling, walking tours, poetry readings and crafts. There was also "real" cake, made by chefs at the New York Marriott Brooklyn, which provided enough dessert for thousands of participants.
Hoffman"s team included alumni Anthony Smith '96, (Cosmopolitan Club), Joanne Gordon '02 (Fouchon Pastry), Thalia Warner '03 (Provence en Boite) and Avi-Noam Mogilner '03. Rounding out the crew was Ebow Dadzie, a Hospitality Management student who works at the Grand Hyatt.
When the Williamsburg Bridge opened in 1903, it was hailed as a marvel of engineering innovation. It boasted the first all-steel towers and claimed the honor of being the world's longest suspension bridge. In 1988, however, the bridge was shut down for almost three months because of the damage done by years of neglect and lack of maintenance. Serious consideration was given to tearing it down and replacing it, but in the end the decision was made to rebuild and repair the historic structure instead; the work is scheduled for completion in 2006.
In its 100-year history, the bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Manhattan, has known many names in addition to "Willy B," including the New East River Bridge, the Immigrant's Bridge, the Workhorse Bridge, the Jew's Highway and El Puente.
