Saturday, Dec 07, 2013
Dubai: Who’s worried about adding a few calories if it came from a stollen cake sold to help fund special needs children’s education?
A 600-metre authentic stollen cake—more than two-thirds the height of the Burj Khalifa—was sold off to visitors of Mall of the Emirates on Saturday for the benefit of Dubai Centre for Special Needs students. A stollen cake is a German version of the Christmas fruit cake.
Fifteen chefs from the Kempinski Hotel-Mall of the Emirates worked 10-12 hours a day for a month to prepare the longest string of stollen cake to-date in their eight-year charity cake sale.
The stollen cake’s length has more than doubled, compared to when they first started with a 250-metre cake in 2005.
“Every year, the charity sale is getting more and more successful all because people love the stollen cake and it’s for charity,” Konstantin Zeuke, General Manager of Kempinski Hotel-Mall of the Emirates, told Gulf News.
Zueke said they wanted a longer cake this year so they could donate more money to the centre. Some Dh71,000 was made from last year’s 570-metre cake sale. They expect to make more than that this year. To date, they have donated more than Dh322,265 to the centre just from cake sales only.
“As a charity and non-profit organisation that relies heavily on fundraising efforts, this cake sale is important to continue providing special education and training to students with various disabilities,” Maya Choueiri, a representative from the centre, told Gulf News.
Choueiri said last year’s cake sale helped improve services at the centre. This year, proceeds will help fund the education of two students who can’t afford their tuition, training, and special therapies.
Choueiri said the centre is grateful for the “long-term and unconditional support” of the hotel and the mall to the centre.
Some 20 special needs students also helped give free cake samples to visitors on Saturday to encourage people to buy more cake, which was sold at Dh5 a slice, Dh50 for half a loaf, and Dh100 for a loaf.
By Janice Ponce de Leon, Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
