Mani Square brought in its 16th anniversary with a 195lb cake that was cut on Saturday afternoon.
“It’s a chocolate and caramel cake which took four days to make. We baked it 27 times, 3.25 kilos at a time,” said chef Bhaskar Chakraborty of the bakery division of JW Marriott.
The birthday theme being Disney, the cake was turned into a bed of white flowers, with raspberry and passion fruit jelly making up for the central seed area amid the petals.
Visitors walked through the facade of a castle with a genie rising out of a magic lamp by it. A magic carpet carried Aladdin and a monkey to the level of the castle spires.
The honours were done by Koneenica Banerjee, CEO of Mani Group Sanjay Jhunjhunwala and director Sudarshana Gangulee, after which everyone who turned up were treated to a slice of the 14ft long and 4ft wide cake.
“Malls have become shelters where moments of happiness are created. Around the time it opened 16 years ago, a long drive from our Bhowanipore home would end here. I remember watching Avatar at the IMAX theatre (which shut down in 2010),” said actress Koneenica Banerjee, who was invited on the occasion.
Even amid the celebration, the fire at Acropolis Mall in south Calcutta the day before hung heavy as a topic of conversation. Director Gangulee said retailers needed to take responsibility alongside the mall management. “It is also their duty not to dump goods in the loading bay or block the exit staircase,” she pointed out, while claiming fire drills were conducted at regular intervals at the mall.