Photo courtesy Sweet Fix
At Manchester’s Sweet Fix bakery, it’s not uncommon for the team to create cakes that show off their clients’ personalities. Whether it’s a cake shaped like a Nintendo 64 system, a “Winnie-the-Pooh”-themed treat or an impressive animation-come-to-life Jack Skellington “Nightmare Before Christmas” masterpiece, the bakers know their way around a piping bag. So, when a Richmond couple contacted Sweet Fix to make a three-tiered Star Wars-meets-Marvel wedding cake, decorator Marj Santaromana was up for the challenge.
“We do a lot of cakes like this, surprisingly,” Sweet Fix owner Amanda Robinson says. Just a cursory glance through her email using the keywords “Star Wars” pulled up around 500 past customer requests.
For this particular cake, Santaromana used a traditional design with floral and leaf patterns and edible pearls. All the incorporated elements are a stark white that at first glance evokes a classic lace aesthetic, but upon closer examination, reveals hidden details including a Millennium Falcon starship, Darth Vader’s helmet and the prominent shield of Captain America.
“In this case, Captain America was their thing, and then the groom was obsessed with Star Wars,” Robinson says, noting that the couple requested the shield as the focal design piece. “The cake really is the most obvious place to incorporate elements like that.”
The confection is encased in Italian buttercream and fondant. Each layer is a different flavor: marble cake with Oreo cookie buttercream on the bottom, lemon zest cake with vanilla buttercream and raspberry jam filling in the middle, and coconut cake with key lime buttercream for the top tier.
For couples looking to make their own Star Wars, Marvel or anything-you-can-dream-of creation (even classic designs), consultations with Sweet Fix are available for scheduling online at sweetfixrva.com. Robinson recommends booking six months to a year in advance of the wedding date.
