Adnan A. Al-Nueim of Asharqia Chamber of Commerce and Industry got the honor of cutting the giant cake amid a barrage of camera flashes from local media. Then Al-Nueim perhaps got the greater honor — the first piece of cake, which he described as “tasty.”

Then literally hundreds of shoppers got a slice and the chance to decide how tasty it was for themselves. Nobody complained.

The mega-cake was part of the hypermarket’s 15-day Food Festival. Lulu has in its six months of operations in Saudi Arabia generated huge sales — a fact that prompted owner Yusuffali M.A. to announce the opening of more Lulu stores in other cities across the Kingdom in coming years.

The mega-cake literally stretched from one end of the supermarket to the other. “It is huge,” said Al-Nueim while taking a tour around the baked-good behemoth.

To give you some idea of the 1,060-kilogram cake’s size, it is about 35 meters longer than the wingspan of an Airbus 330 airliner or a blue whale — the largest animal that ever lived. It would take an Olympic runner a little over nine seconds to get from one end to the other.

Making it was no piece of cake.

“It took 48 man-hours to make this cake,” said Lulu Regional Manager Abdul Basheer. “This was part of the surprise we had for our customers who have begun visiting us in large numbers for the food festival. Our customers will have surprise-filled fun time for the next two weeks.”

The hypermarket employs a large number of Saudis along with nationals from several countries. Taking an active part in the preparation of the mega-cake were Saudis, Lebanese, Egyptians, Syrians, Indians, Filipinos, Pakistanis, Indonesians and Sri Lankans.

A large number of chamber and municipal officials were also present on the occasion.

In the absence of any official records, it is unclear if this is the largest or the biggest cake in Saudi Arabia’s history. A piece of the mega-cake was distributed to all the customers throughout the day yesterday, and eager and helpful supermarket employees were urging customers to enjoy as much as they could. You don’t have to worry about running out when your cake is 95 meters long.