Andhra laddu-maker eyes to break own Guinness records

Rajahmundry (AP): A city-based sweetshop, which has already set four Guinness Records for making large 'laddus', is attempting to better its achievement by making a mammoth laddu weighing 8,000 kg for the Ganesha festival celebrations commencing on Thursday.

Sri Bhaktanjaneya Sweets owner Saladi Venkateswara Rao said this is the fifth consecutive year that they have prepared huge laddus, with the biggest one weighing 8,000 kg and the other about 6,400 kg (excluding the bowl that alone weighs a whopping 875 kg), for two tallest Ganesha idols installed in Andhra Pradesh.

The 8,000 kg sweet named 'Navyaandhra Laddu' is ready for delivery tomorrow to an 80-feet tall Ganesh idol put up by Visakha Integrated Social Welfare Association supported by NRIs at the Gajuwaka area in Visakhapatnam.

The laddu was prepared by 12 workers in eight hours, he said.

"We want to break our own Guinness Record this year by making these laddus. We also have orders for large laddus from Odisha, Bengaluru, Chennai and from Hyderabad. We will be taking orders even on the festival day," Rao said.

The 6,300-kg laddu is prepared for Vijayawada-based Dundi Ganesh Seva Samithi which is installing a 63-feet Natya Ganesh idol there and will be delivered tomorrow, Rao said, adding, he employs 40 people specifically for making these large laddus.

Sri Bhaktanjaneya Sweets bagged the Guinness Records for preparing laddus weighing 5,570 kg in 2011, 6,599 kg in 2012, and 7,132 kg in 2013 and a 7,858 kg sweet last year.

Meanwhile, another sweet manufacturer, Surchi Sweets here is producing a 5,995 kg laddu, to be delivered to a 59-feet Ganesha idol installed by Thrishatimaya Moksha Ganapathi mandal at Khairtabad in Telangana.

Its owner P Mallikurjuna Rao said their last year's laddu weighed 400 kg less than the sweet prepared this year.

He also said that for the first time they have made the laddu with 'thermal heating system', adding, the sweet is prepared with sugar, dal flour, pure cow ghee, cashews, groundnuts, cardamom, edible yellow camphor, turmeric and other dry fruits.