French chef fulfils dream of being a record breaker with longest strawberry cake

Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, Youssef El Gatou created the longest strawberry cake in France.

He brought together 20 chefs to make the masterpiece that took a week to complete.

Layered together on the backdrop of a perfect ice rink, the cake measured 121.8 metres long (399 ft 7.27 in).

The previous record was held by Municipality of San Mauro Torinese (Italy) with 100.48 m (329 ft 7 in).

El Gatou has been running his pastry and bakery shops with his wife in the suburbs of Paris since 2016, making delicious pastries day in and day out.

In 2021, his pastry shop won second place in a regional croissant competition

All while having the dream to one day break a Guinness World Records title.

With the help of City of Argenteuil, and the dairy brand Président, who supported him, he managed to make his dream come true.

He admits that he didn’t get much sleep the day before the attempt.

As much as it was a cooking challenge, El Gatou had to battle with logistics too!

This included using blowtorches to heat the bowl for the cream mix.

The strawberries were also sourced from almost four hours north of France.

Youssef was particularly worried about the strawberries showing up on time. Luckily for him, they did!

Youssef chose a strawberry cake because he considers it a classic French dessert and wanted to pay homage to it.

The pastry chef says the key to a good strawberry cake is the soft sponge the strawberries sit on.

After the record was confirmed, the cake was shared with the public in a celebration attended by many members of the Moroccan community.

Portions of the cake were also given to local retirement homes, a hospital, firefighters, and the Red Cross.