The One Lamington to Rule Them All

In Voices this week, we meet the Auckland couple who smashed the Guinness World Record for baking the world's biggest lamington.New Zealand's latest Guinness World Record holders know the sweet taste of success thanks to a massive lamington, weighing more than 2700 kilograms, topped with 200 kilograms of jam, 200 kilograms of coconut and literally buckets of chocolate sauce. Listen to this episode about the World's biggest lamington2020 has been a rollercoaster of a year for Farhan and Zeenat Sattar, co-owners of Creative Edge Food Company, a bespoke wholesale bakery that supplies goods to cafes around the country. Zeenat Sattar (left) with Creative Edge head chef and Farhan Sattar (right)At the beginning of the year, Farhan Sattar set himself a goal."He goes, I want creative to be known internationally," said Zeenat, "I'm like, okay. We didn't know how that would happen.""But yeah, it happened." adds Farhan.It all happened after they were approached by Suzanne Cannell, founder of Cook's Night Off."She was just looking for someone to bake some slabs and I'm like, this is pretty exciting," said Zeenat.Others donated ingredients and the team at Creative Edge donated their time and expertise."We just got more and more involved with it," said Zeenat, "And then my dad, who's a naval architect got involved in designing the lamington, how we would lay the layers on so they wouldn't collapse."They had other incentives to get involved too, like beating the previous record holders."Our lamingtons are quite popular, we sell a lot of them and, you know, what better way to celebrate (that) and beat the Aussies," she said."That was definitely one of the selling points," added Farhan, "I got my New Zealand citizenship last year. So now I'm a kiwi. So it was time to be the Aussies."Farhan is originally from Bradford in the north of England, while Zeenat was born in India but moved to New Zealand when she was 12. After getting married, they lived in England for several years, but Zeenat wanted their children to be raised here.Both have quite scientific educations, Farhan has a bachelor's in human genetics, while Zeenat studied computer science and pharmacology and has her masters in health research.They both believe this has helped with their current line of work."People say baking is an art," said Farhan, "Cooking is an art. Baking is a science. It's like a chemistry experiment, you've got to follow the steps. If you don't follow steps. It won't come right."…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details