Giant Rio Confection 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.