Markham uses 3D printing to make 12-foot cake
For Canada’s 150th birthday, city is making ‘epic’ treat, but sadly, it’s not edible
Every big birthday needs a cake.
So to celebrate Canada 150, Markham is going all-out: more than 500 volunteers have used 3D printing pens to create a 12-foot-tall Canadathemed delicacy. The only problem? You can’t eat it. The cake will be “iced” with plastic beavers, poutine, fishing boats, lighthouses and Mounties, among other Canadian symbols—all made by Markham community members.
“Canada’s turning 150, it’s supposed to be a party! How do you have a party without cake?” said Marina Mais. She’s the brainchild behind the community art project, called “For Canada With Love.”
When it’s assembled for Markham’s Canada Day celebrations on Saturday, the four-layer cake will stand 12 feet high and 12 feet wide.
“It’s going to be very epic,” Mais said.
Over the past month, hundreds of people have used 3D pens to make the decorations.
The pens are easy to use and allow people to essentially draw with melted plastic.
Mais is the founder of New Steps 4 U, a non-profit organization that uses art as therapy.
She’s held several cake-making sessions for the general public, as well as with schoolchildren, seniors, newcomers, work groups and people with disabilities.
“Art has no borders,” she said. “I have a picture of a 4-year-old doing it, and a picture of a 90-year-old doing it.
At a senior’s home, people with Alzheimer’s and dementia worked to- gether to create one piece of the cake, she said. At a welcome centre, newcomers who didn’t speak English created another.
Students at Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School made150 candles for the cake out of cardboard tubes, Mais said.
The cake will be at Milne Park for Markham’s Canada Day celebrations on Saturday.
Volunteers will walk with the candles in the parade, then place them on the cake once they get to the park.
The plan is to light the candles with LED bulbs and for the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” later in the evening.
All the pens and supplies were donated. Mais said she chose” the image templates from a Canadian colouring book.