When New York celebrated St Patrick's Day with a three-tier green, white and gold cake in the lobby of the world-famous Waldorf Astoria hotel, Manchester's Irish community decided they wanted to go two better.

The city's St Patrick's society commissioned a five-tier, 15ft cake to mark this year's celebrations of Ireland's patron saint and the 75th anniversary of the Manchester society.

The fruit cake, made by renowned Bury patissier Slattery's, has been unveiled in the lobby of the city centre Midland Hotel, where the society – one of the oldest in Britain – was founded in 1935 and where they will celebrate their jubilee with a ball tomorrow, Wednesday, St Patrick's Day.

It features a saint's gold mitre on top and images of Irish memorabilia around the five tiers.

But don't try sinking you're teeth into the bottom three tiers – with a bottom layer measuring four metres square, they're fake.