If Willy Wonka himself hosted a trade show, I imagine it would be something like the New York Cake Show. Earlier this month, in a big, bright room that smelled like sugar and perfectionism, master cake decorators gathered to swap war stories and show off their best work. Now in its fifth year, the show featured a Broadway-themed cake decorating competition as well as demonstrations, workshops and exhibits by purveyors of confectionary tools and supplies.
I’m no cake pro myself—I’m more of a cake fan—so I admit I wasn’t fully prepared for the scene at the Cake Show. I wandered around in a giddy daze, accepting ganache cake pops made with Guittard chocolate and samples of Flavor Right whipped topping. I learned about an ingenious apparatus called a Cake Safe and perused tools for shaping humanoid eyes out of fondant.
In the middle of all this, of course, were the cakes themselves. Not just cakes, but cookies, cupcakes, sugar flowers, sculptures and more. Competition entries were divided into item categories—wedding cake, sculpture, etc.—as well as skill level divisions. With their flawlessly smooth, bright surfaces and shiny details, many of the cakes in the show barely registered as food in my brain. Which is not far from the truth, it turns out. Most categories in the competition require “dummy cake” interiors. That is, a styrofoam base instead of real cake.
Still, the entries must feature a design that would be possible to replicate on a real cake. All decorations and adhesives must be made from edible materials, and the competition rules state that higher points are awarded for decorative objects that are made by hand rather than with commercially available molds and stencils. The results are so mind-bending that I assume they require some level of witchcraft.
Molly Jean Bennett is a writer and multimedia producer based in New York City. Her essays, poems, and strongly worded letters have appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Atlas Obscura, VICE, and elsewhere.
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This Mary Poppins cake by Jean Schapowal was one of the veteran cake maker's most ambitious projects to date.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Up close, it's more impressive still. Each character has its own personality, and even the two-dimensional surfaces are shaded and finely detailed. It should be noted that high level cake decorating is a dangerous art. Schapowal got a second degree burn pouring sugar for the red bottle.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Small opera house or very large wedding cake? Hard to say. This curtained masterpiece by Chrissie Boon won the Wedding Cake category.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Never has a severed arm looked so appealing. This sweet and monstrous rendering of Little Shop of Horrors took first place in the Decorated Cupcake Display category.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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What could be better than a cake decorated with tiny pies? Mahiru Sekimoto's Waitress cake wasn't the biggest of the bunch, but I loved the lacy details and pie-tastic flourishes.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Jennifer Moshier's entry in the Non Cake Display category is made of isomalt, a substance that pushes the definition of edibility to its breaking point. Often used as a sweetener in sugar-free candies, isomalt may well be the culprit behind the famous Amazon reviews of gut nightmare gummy bears. But, like everything else in the show, Moshier's exquisite violin and sheet of music weren't really meant for eating.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Everything about this cake by Tatiana Kovalenko seems ready to spring to life, but I believe the Beast's powerful thighs deserve special consideration.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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The wickedest birthday is surely the one where you have to destroy this masterpiece by something so vulgar as cutting it up and eating it. Leonardo Santos' Wicked birthday cake won first place in the Professional Celebration Cake category.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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This cookie display by Cilia Moreno is proof that Laverne Cox is as lovely atop a slab of gingerbread as she is in real life.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett
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Don't let this one stump you—it's not a real log. Nope, just a exquisitely sculpted tower of sugar by Ryan Del Franco. This cake came first among Celebration Cakes in the student division.
Photo by Molly Jean Bennett