Constructed on strawberry shortcake, the three-part creation makes use of round 500 kilos of strawberry jam and 200 kilos of contemporary strawberry garnish sourced from farms throughout the valley
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — In La Trinidad, a large cake isn’t simply dessert. It’s agriculture on show, labor made seen, and a city’s id grown, baked, and sliced in public.
By midmorning on Sunday, March 29, the road had already fashioned not for spectacle however for a style of one thing distinctly native. On the 2026 Strawberry Pageant, the centerpiece “Triplet” strawberry cake drew individuals in not simply due to its measurement, however due to what it represents: a harvest carried from subject to desk by many arms.
Constructed on strawberry shortcake, the three-part creation used round 500 kilos of strawberry jam and 200 kilos of contemporary strawberry garnish, all sourced from farms throughout the valley, together with the well-known Strawberry Farm managed by Benguet State College and tilled by native growers. The cake is anticipated to yield round 10,000 to 11,000 slices, every bought to the general public for P20.
It’s large, sure. However it’s also rooted.
“That is binnadang in motion,” mentioned Mayor Roderick Awingan. “You see it in each layer—from the farmers to the bakers to the volunteers who make sure that everybody will get a share.”
Awingan additionally thanked the Strawberry Cake Committee — Councilors Belmer Ellis and Nestor Fongwan Jr., Municipal Administrator Frank Bawang, and Price range Officer Imelda Grupo — for main this yr’s effort.
This yr, the city made a deliberate shift. As an alternative of tapping a number of bakeries, the venture was led by a single workforce to make sure consistency of style — Valley Bread, beneath 31-year-old COO Nicolo Espadero, working intently together with his mom, Perlita.
Younger, however regular, Espadero approached the size with readability.
“We wished a cake individuals would truly get pleasure from consuming,” he mentioned. “Not simply one thing large for show. We used the Candy Charlie strawberry selection as a result of that’s what was out there and what tastes proper. It took 4 days to organize, however we stored asking ourselves: will individuals just like the recipe?”
They did.
The cake, produced from about 500 pans, every weighing roughly 2.4 kilos and reduce into 24 slices, was not cloying. The strawberries had been brilliant and contemporary, the Italian buttercream restrained. It was, merely, a very good shortcake — the sort that pairs finest with Benguet espresso and unhurried dialog.
For Perlita Espadero, the muse of all of it remained the fruit.
“The strawberries had been freshly picked simply yesterday, with assist from the Workplace of the Municipal Agriculturist,” she mentioned. “All from La Trinidad. That’s what issues most.”
Behind the numbers — 60 volunteers, 20 bakers, and one other 10 dealing with building for the cake base— was a choreography locals have come to count on every competition season: days of coordinated work for one thing that disappears in hours, however lingers longer than it ought to.
As a result of right here, the cake isn’t just about measurement. It’s about continuity.
La Trinidad has staged this ritual earlier than, on a scale that after reached the world. In 2004, the municipality set a Guinness World Report for the most important strawberry shortcake, weighing over 9,600 kilograms and serving greater than 10,000 individuals. Since then, the annual desserts have developed, from the towering “Twin Cake” in 2023 to the intricately formed “Kayabang” cake in 2025, shifting away from record-breaking towards meaning-making.
The “Triplet” continues that trajectory. It’s not making an attempt to outdo the previous. It’s making an attempt to replicate the current.
Slices had been distributed to residents and guests, each a small, tangible piece of a bigger story. Some got here for nostalgia. Others for curiosity. Many just because this has change into a part of the valley’s rhythm — a shared act that begins within the soil, passes by means of many arms, and briefly ends in one thing candy.
In a yr marked by rising prices and uncertainty, the cake lands otherwise. Not as extra, however as providing.
As a result of at its core, the “Triplet” isn’t just about feeding a crowd. It’s about displaying what a group can nonetheless make collectively — rooted in land, in labor, and in a convention that continues to develop.
Not too candy. Excellent. – Rappler.com
