Perhaps more so than any other confection, cakes have the power to evoke powerful feelings, from delight to comfort to inspiration. A key element in milestone celebrations — birthdays, weddings and everything in between — cakes signify momentous occasions in the most delicious way possible. Recently, cake decoration has taken a turn toward the artistic, even esoteric, evolving from the fondant-and-sprinkles constructions we grew up with to platforms for personal expression, natural elements and even a few savory surprises.
Almond cake with chocolate ganache filling and white chocolate buttercream from Fat Rabbit (Photo by Justin Vaughan)
Ellyn Hopper, Fat Rabbit
When Fat Rabbit owner Ellyn Hopper, 29, approaches a commissioned cake, it's a discovery process. “I hardly ever set out with a goal of how it’s going to look,” says Hopper, whose brick-and-mortar bakery opens this month in Union Hill. “If I have creative liberty over the flavors, I’m thinking about the seasons and the weather.” She draws inspiration from her Scotch-English heritage and time spent in Italy as well as online, from cookbook author Thalia Ho, baker and writer Clare Ptak, and the crew at Gjusta in Venice, California.
While seasonality may not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks about cakes, Hopper’s are designed to let peak-season ingredients shine. Once she has a grasp of the flavors she plans to use, Hopper will conceive the design. “Stylistically, I try to keep it congruent with the flavors that I’m working with, which are more on the natural side — herbs and things like that," she says. "It's really important that the design reflects that and that these two things are one and the same.”
Hopper might note the way a swirl in her Italian meringue buttercream frosting creates a divot just the right size to fit a flower petal or candied orange peel and then build from there. “It feels like bringing all the elements to a place where they belong,” she says.
Hopper’s sweet tooth leans more toward the savory side, with an emphasis on contrast, and she prefers to work with ingredients such as rich dark chocolates, vibrant citrus and ripe fruit. She is inspired by vegetal flavors, favoring a carrot cake that is straight-up carrot (“no nuts, no fruit, no frills”) spiced with cardamom and ginger. She laughs when she explains that she has to stop herself from adding olive oil to every cake. She shares that her “Dark and Bluesy,” which marries a dark chocolate cake with sultry blueberry compote and a sweet vermouth buttercream, is one of the best representations of her approach to baking. “It’s almost like each cake is its own being, and I’m excited to discover what it looks like and what its personality is.”
A cake with pressed pansies, violas and fresh gomphrena by Olivia Wilson (Photo courtesy Olivia Wilson)
Olivia Wilson, Freelance Baker
When freelance baker, artist and former Brenner Pass co-owner Olivia Wilson is hired to create an original cake, the first question she asks herself is, “How do I want this cake to make someone feel?”
Wilson says she considers when and where a cake is going to be eaten before choosing decorative elements. If it will be eaten the same day, she may garnish with a whole fresh flower. If it needs to travel, she may use pressed pansies or dried gomphrena. There’s an educational element to her baking as well: Often, it will be the first time the client has encountered edible flowers, so Wilson says it’s important to communicate exactly what they are.
Wilson’s cakes are known for innovative combinations of flavors and textures, including ingredients such as tonka bean, mesquite and hoshigaki — a Japanese dried persimmon that Wilson used after curing it over the fall and winter. While building each cake, she considers the flavor and aesthetics of florals, greens and seeds together, sourcing from Hummingbird Flower Co., Hazelwitch Farm and Amy’s Organic Garden. Vegetables from Shine Farms have also made their way into her cakes, and even mushrooms grown by Rappahannock River Mushrooms have inspired decorative touches.
Ultimately, for Wilson, constructing a cake is an exploration of the natural world. “I’m always trying to get back to nature and the way things grow and how we grow with them,” she says. “It might seem like a lengthy way to go about making a cake, but for me, it’s always been about figuring out why I like cooking and feeding people.”
A themed creation from Arley Cakes (Photo courtesy Arley Bell)
Arley Bell, Arley Cakes
Arley Cakes owner Arley Bell often aligns her baking with a mission of social equity, whether overtly, through messages including “Black Lives Matter” or “Trans rights are human rights” written atop a cake, or through activism and fundraising for community organizations. When baking, Bell often contemplates, “How do I deliberately and loudly use my platform for the things I care about?”
A University of Virginia alum, Bell likes to test techniques she discovers on Instagram and YouTube and is inspired by bakers such as Paola Velez, the founder of Bakers Against Racism, and KC Hysmith, a North Carolina-based writer and food historian.
For one-off cakes, Bell aims to create flavors that fit the occasion, like a peanut butter and jelly-inspired cake for an auction that benefited the Jackson Ward Youth Peace Team. For other cakes, Bell uses olive oil and tangy citrus as well as florals such as lavender, which she combines with lemon, honey and blackberry. Her online menu is the jumping-off point from which patrons can riff. “A lot of times I’m trying to hone techniques I’ve done before,” she says, “and mix things up at least a little bit to keep things interesting for me and unique for clients.”
Bell began adding social justice messages to her cakes by request after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, and making a statement through baking is a literal expression of her personality. “Baking has always been a creative outlet for me,” she explains. “As a Black woman, I feel like putting these things on cakes is expressing a part of myself. It’s very therapeutic and beautiful for me to put these messages on cakes.”
