When you’re trying to come up with a really unusual birthday present, it pays to use your loaf.
In the case of Laura Hadland, she used 600 of them.
The 27-year-old museum curator turned a photo of her mother-in-law, Sandra Whitfield, into the world’s largest toast mosaic – comprising 9,852 slices.
Mrs Hadland roped in 40 friends to help her make the tribute, which she describes as ‘a treat made with love and a sense of randomness’.
They used a battery of nine toasters to brown the slices of bread to varying degrees before arranging it to make the 32ft 8in by 42ft 3in picture at an arts venue in Mrs Whitfield’s home town of Warrington, Cheshire.
After spending six hours painstakingly perfecting the image, Laura surprised her husband Mike’s mother with the unusual portrait to celebrate her 50th birthday.
The enormous picture was confirmed yesterday as having set a new Guinness World Record as the largest toast mosaic.
Laura, from Leicester, said: ‘It’s great to have broken the record – what an awesome day. I’m thrilled my best mates come together to make our mark on history and celebrate Sandra’s birthday at the same time – it’s a birthday card like no other.
‘As a museum curator, I spend lots of time with Roman mosaics so it was great fun to make a modern one out of my favourite food – everyone loves toast.
‘It’s a treat for Sandra made with much love and a sense of randomness. She’s certainly not a stereotypical mother in law, she’s one of my best friends and I love her.’
Mrs Whitfield, a divorced mother of two, cried with joy when she saw the unusual birthday gift. She said: ‘It was certainly a massive shock. I love toast but it feels very strange seeing my face made out of it.
‘I’m really overwhelmed because they have gone to so much effort. Laura really is the best daughter in law you could wish for. It’s been the best birthday present ever and I’m now a world record holder.’
Huge toast mosaic portrait is new Guinness world record
The toast mosaic – 128 square metres of browned and scorched bread – was officially named the world’s largest at 5pm on October 17 at Warrington’s Parr Hall by Guinness World Records adjudicator Claire Burgess. The previous record holder measured 121.93 square metres and was created by staff and students at a school in Eindhoven, Netherlands, in February.
Laura used Facebook to recruit volunteers for the record attempt, which was part of a social networking project – the Wildfire Experience – sponsored by mobile device manufacturer HTC. Emily Edmondson, eight, who took part along with her mother and grandmother, was one of the youngest mosaic makers.
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