I did a trial run on this cake earlier, and this was the real cake for a gourmet dinner for 8 with an African theme- the dinner was auctioned off at a non profit black tie gala for over $7,000. It was quite time consuming (2 1/2 hours on the stripes alone!- they were cut individually from MMF). It was worth it, the guests really loved it - it was the hit of the party!