John Lennon, Melissa and world’s largest cupcake mosaic.

John Winston Lennon was born 75 years ago,  on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England. Lennon and his wife Ono moved to the U.S. in September 1971. Lennon   lived in New York last seven  years of his life on the Upper West Side in Dakota building at the corner of West 72.  The Lennons bought several of the apartments in the Dakota. John Lennon was shot in front of the main entrance on December 8th 1980, when he was returning from a recording session for his last album "Double Fantasy" accompanied by Yoko. Yoko still has her New York residence on the top floor of the building. Here apartment  overlooks Central Park across the street and the special section dedicated to her husband, Strawberry Fields. You can read about Dakota in one of my posts.

Dakota

Several days ago, on October 6,   Yoko Ono led an attempt to create the largest-ever human peace sign  in  Central Park’s East Meadow in commemoration of  John Lennon’s 75th birthday. Ono was hoping to gather between 6,000 and 10,000 people, with 5,000 attendees needed to break the world record.  However, a representative from the Guinness World Records told CBS News that only 2,000 individuals attended, meaning that Ono fell well short of the record number.

Another attempt to break  the  world record done on the same day was more successful.
In honor of John Lennon’s 75th birthday, Baked by Melissa partnered with Yoko Ono and the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus  created the world’s largest cupcake art mosaic in front of the iconic Bethesda Fountain in Central Park .  You can read about fountain in one of my posts.   A record-breaking 40,000 cupcakes were used in the creation of the mosaic.

Melissa Ben-Ishay said, "Coming together to build a giant 40,000 cupcake tie-dye peace sign, in honor of John Lennon's birthday made this one of Baked by Melissa's most magical days yet."
 I was not there  at the East Meadow, but   I was lucky to make some pictures of the team working at the mosaic .
Melissa  Ben-Ishay ( now 31)  started her business  in 2008. In  her interview done in 2009 she said: "I  got fired from my job at Deutsch Inc. I hated my job as assistant media planner. I tried to love it but I couldn't. When I got fired I felt that it was unjust. I thought it was because my boss just didn't like me. Now I don't really care what the reason was, I'm just happy it happened."

 World Street Journal wrote about Melissa:
"Within a week, and with some help from her brother, she had a new job: president and chief product officer of Baked by Melissa, her own cupcake business.  Seven years later, Ms. Ben-Ishay’s one-woman show has transformed into a small empire. With nearly 300 employees and 12 locations in the greater New York area, Baked by Melissa is now a multimillion-dollar company within a market that has seen slipping sales and store closures as the nation’s cupcake fad begins to dwindle.


I tried Melissa cupcakes several times  -they were  really yammy! My favorite is the  red velvet.

 The cupcake display in Central park measured in at over 25 x 25 feet.  Measurements were taken by independent professionals and will be submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records. The record is currently held at 30,400 cupcakes.