World's fastest edible vehicle is a Formula One car made entirely of CAKE

This is the sweetest race you have ever seen!

Mike Elder, along with Michael Andretti (both USA) created and piloted the fastest edible vehicle, achieving a Guinness World Records title. On 18 November 2020, the town of Ridgefield, Washington, USA, saw real history being made as two cars entirely made of cake raced through a casino resort.

Michael Andretti is an American former racing driver, born in 1962 in the state of Pennsylvania. His father, Mario Andretti, was both Formula One and IndyCar champion, making Michael a true natural in his family's legacy of racing! His driving career peaked in the 1980s - 1990s, when he won 42 CART races and the 1991 CART Championship. 1993 marked his biggest success as he drove in a Formula One race for McLaren's team.

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Today, Michael has transitioned into team ownership. He founded Andretti Autosport, which became a powerhouse in American open-wheel racing, winning multiple IndyCar championships and several Indianapolis 500 races.

Achieving this world record was truly symbolic for Andretti, and his family legacy. But, an extremely talented Elder added real taste to the event, because what is life without some sweetness?

Elder played the real artistic part in this race. He is a talented cake-maker with a career in baking and a kink for creativity. For this attempt, he built two edible vehicles that were raced side-by-side - one serving as a tribute to Michael Andretti's 1991 champion season, another one representing his father's, Mario Andretti, in 1979.

But symbolism was certainly not enough! Both cars were 12 layers tall, made with hundreds of vanilla and chocolate sheet cakes, covered by buttercream frosting on top! Driver's seats made with rice cereal treats, and lastly, doors fully covered in satin ice fondant along with edible images. To design and build such a sugar machine, Elder gathered a team of nine people who worked over the course of 46 hours.

Overall, each vehicle was more than 90% edible, with the inedible support weighing only 28.57 out of 298.46 kg (63 out of 658 lbs) for the first car, and only 28.12 out of 303.45kg (62 out of 669 lbs) for the second.

No food went to waste, however! The homeless outreach organization called Share Vancouver in Washington, USA, teamed up with our record breakers to serve the cake cars to people in need.

Years later, Mike shares with Canvas Rebel that the COVID-19 pandemic, right after his Guinness World Records title, affected his career and mental well-being.

"It's an odd world we live in," Mike told them, "I've accomplished so many fantastic feats, I have three Guinness World Records, I've been on dozens of TV shows, and made cakes around the world for some of the most well known people in the world. But I still felt rather empty… All the while I looked like I was on top of the world!"

Nevertheless, this spectacular and sweet achievement is still celebrated today!