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For weddings, baby showers, career milestones, homecomings, and more; today’s cake artisans design works of art that embody the celebrant’s personal vision, and showcase the creator’s signature style.
*photo by MAC Photography
Arie Kidder, of Arie Kidder Custom Cakes, in Exeter, New Hampshire, will take on any design challenge to fulfill a client’s dream. One of her most remarkable creations was a replica of stacked vintage suitcases designed to reflect a wedding couple’s passion for travel. Kidder had been granted full creative license to come up with a concept, so she met with the couple to get a sense of what would be meaningful to them. “They were very big travelers and were having a Havana wedding theme. There was going to be a woman passing out [chocolate] cigars, and there was going to be a salsa band.” The couple loved Kidder’s idea and the resulting tower of luggage was complete with authentic-looking passport stamps, luggage tags, “metal” clasps and hinges, and “leather” handles, all constructed out of edible materials such as buttercream, fondant, and sugar paste. The top suitcase was propped open to reveal actual mementos from the couple’s many travel adventures.
As stunning as her creations are, says Kidder, it’s all meaningless if the cake isn’t yummy. “I’m more flattered if you say my cakes are delicious than if you say they look beautiful,” she says. “That’s the main dessert, and it’s the last thing guests are going to eat, so first and foremost you really want it to be delicious.”
At Let Them Eat Cake, in Kennebunk, Maine, Gayle Forte draws inspiration from many sources, but the most important muse, she explains, is the celebrant. Most of Forte’s creations are wedding cakes and she says, “I get [the couple] to think about something that means something to them, a favorite painting, the dress design.” Forte loves it when the cake evokes a personal memento, such as the bride who wanted the cake to reflect her late grandmother’s china pattern, or another who offered a set of tiny bird magnets she loved, inspiring Forte to hand-sculpt tiny, marzipan replicas of the little creatures.
Of course, the beautiful Maine shoreline is a popular theme among her clients, many of whom are from away and have chosen Kennebunk as a destination wedding site. For her signature seashore-themed cakes, Forte has handcrafted silicon molds from foraged seashells, and she uses the molds to create pristine sugar-paste facsimiles of various ocean treasures.
*photo by Justin Monroe, Monroe Photography
At Hippie Chick Bakery, in Kensington, New Hampshire, co-owner Amy Mastronardi creates elegant, custom-designed cakes, but with an added challenge; Hippie Chick specializes in accommodating various dietary restrictions. Whether it’s vegan, nut free, or gluten free, Mastronardi can accommodate almost any request. In addition, Mastronardi and her partner, co-owner Carl Neunaber, use lots of local, organic ingredients, including eggs from their flock of free-range rescued shelter chickens, and fresh fruit and edible blossoms from their organic garden. They also maintain an absolutely tree nut– and peanut-free facility.
To compete in the boutique cake business, Mastronardi (who is the culinary and artistic force at the bakery) must craft stunning, decadent-tasting cakes, regardless of the ingredients. Creating several variations of each cake flavor is an impressive undertaking—Hippie Chick offers over a dozen cake flavors and over two dozen filling and icing flavors that can be made with or without eggs, dairy, or gluten—and Mastronardi has developed all of her own recipes. In addition to wedding cakes, Mastronardi has sculpted detailed special-occasion cakes, such as a mug of foaming Guinness, an African safari, and a Noah’s Ark. Her most memorable cake thus far, she says, has been a Deep Space wedding cake ordered by a couple who were Star Trek fans and had the cake flown cross-country for their Vegas wedding.
Residents of Suncook, New Hampshire, have been indulging in the fine European-style pastries of Jacques Pastries for more than thirty-five years. Owned by Jacques and Paula Despris, the bakery also specializes in the custom cakes designed by daughter-in-law Tammy Despris, who came to the bakery as an intern fourteen years ago and eventually married son Justin. The creative process is a collaborative effort for the Despris family; for weddings, Tammy meets with the couple and comes up with the visual concept for the cake, then Jacques and Justin do most of the cake baking. Paula does all of the detailed hand-sculpting of sugar paste figurines, and Tammy does the main decorating and assembly.
 The Despris have seen a lot of changes over the years. fourteen years ago, says Tammy, wedding cakes all followed a similar design, with ruffly, white frosting and piped buttercream roses tinted to match the colors of the wedding. “The Food Network has opened up new ideas and there is so much to work with now,” says Tammy. A perfect example is the wedding cake Tammy designed for a hiking-enthusiast bride and groom. The three-tiered cake resembles a mountain, with the bride and groom—hand-sculpted by Paula and decked out in hiking garb—ascending the mountain towards their waiting spaniel.
In Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, Melissa Carter at Bumblebee Cake Studio does many custom-designed wedding cakes, but her specialty is sculpted cakes for all manner of celebrations. For a beach-themed bridal shower, Carter designed a whimsical sand pail filled with “sand” and embellished with lifelike, hand-sculpted baby crabs and seashells, and for a literary couple’s rehearsal dinner cake she created a collection of classic novels.
Carter loves working with many different mediums, including buttercream, sugar paste, and marzipan. Fondant is one of her favorites and she says it undeservedly receives a bad rap in the flavor department. A good quality fondant, she says, has a pleasant, marshmallow-like flavor (another cake maker described it as similar to candy corn), and it has the look of porcelain, which provides a wonderful backdrop for the elegant design details  of contemporary wedding cakes. Often times, says Carter, a bride will choose her cake design based on the fabric and lacework of her dress or on a piece of heirloom jewelry. Beneath the fondant there is always a layer of buttercream or other icing, says Carter, so it’s the best of both worlds.
Hilary Larson, of Eat Cake, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, says her most popular cake is a chocolate fudge cake filled with fresh raspberry preserves and white chocolate buttercream. The cake is frosted with dark chocolate ganache, topped with a mound of fresh raspberries, and then decorated with lacey, baroque piping. A relevant message or salutation is elegantly inscribed around the side of the cake. “Using lots of fresh fruit, and the writing around the outside of the cake,” says Larson, “those are our signatures, and what I love about it is that it’s this delicious-looking thing that is going to totally wreck your diet.”
Larson left the business world to pursue her dream of cake making and she says, “I know it seems cliché to say ‘I left corporate and I’m doing something fun,’ but this has been the most positive experience; I really love what I do.” No matter how labor intensive or beautiful her cakes might be, Larson wants guests to truly indulge in the flavors and to enjoy the pleasure of eating. After all, her motto is “It’s great to be alive. Eat cake!”
Cake tips from the pros
• Contact the bakery at least three months in advance. Many bakeries limit the number of cakes they will produce in a weekend, so even if you are not ready to settle on the specific design for your cake, you can often reserve the date far in advance with a “good faith” deposit, and then schedule a consultation when the big day is only two or three months away.
• When you arrive at your consultation, it’s a good idea to bring pictures of anything you may want to incorporate into the design: color swatches, pictures of flowers, dresses, rings, invitations, or anything else you think might inspire you. Pictures of other cakes you love can be helpful as well (you can bring pictures of cakes you dislike, too).
• In addition, bring basic information, such as number of guests, date, time, and vendor (function site) along with a list of names and phone numbers.
• Bring your appetite, too. Most bakeries will allow you to sample as many cake flavors as you like at no charge!
• Have a budget in mind before you arrive at your consultation. Prices vary from bakery to bakery but the range is generally between $3.50 and $5 per person. Extensive decoration, intricate design, and elaborate decoration may cost slightly more. In particular, the use of rolled fondant, marzipan, handmade sugar deco-rations, and edible blossoms will add to the cost.
• Ask about any additional fees and costs. Most bakeries include delivery within a certain radius, and then charge more per mile or per hour for deliveries outside of their range.
Thanks to Amy Mastronardi, of Hippie Chick Bakery, for her helpful tips.
A Johnson and Wales graduate, Paula Sullivan trained with Jasper White in Boston and was sous-chef at Lindbergh’s Crossing in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Her work has appeared in the Culinary Institute of America’s Kitchen and Cook, The Wire, and the Portsmouth Herald.
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