On a recent rain-soaked afternoon in Toronto, the door to the Cake Opera Company’s midtown boutique opens up to a fantastical, heavily frosted scene. The overwrought decor of the baked-goods emporium – large mirrors in ornate frames, curios covered in gilt – is in keeping with, even reflective of the extravagant confections crafted and sold inside. Think pseudo- Baroque explosions of icing and batter, cakes that wouldn’t be out of place on a museum podium.
“I always loved making beautiful things, even in high school,” says Alexandria Pellegrino, the creative force behind Cake Opera Company. “There were [clothes and accessories] that I wanted but couldn’t afford or that no one was making.” So she learned to make them herself. After graduating from the Ontario College of Art & Design, Pellegrino enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu’s pastry arts program in Ottawa to satisfy her varied interests, which ranged from art restoration and religious iconography to horror movies and, of course, food.
As a student, the 29-year-old says, “the two ideas of the really beautiful and really grotesque fascinated me. Then I started incorporating classic French pastry and this idea of excessive consumption. My instructors thought it was crazy and amazing.” At the same time, they encouraged Pellegrino to develop her signature style, one that has led her to create cakes adorned withsuch trimmings as tiny bird skulls made of edible gold.
As unique as her cakes may be, however, Pellegrino’s m.o. is becoming a little less rarefied. A sought-after cake designer (her clients have included Nicole Richie, Vivica A. Fox and Spam heiress Gillian Hormel) and a judge on TV’s Cake Walk, Pellegrino is leading a coterie of Canadian cake artisans who are raising the bar on baking. There are plenty of takers for their flights of fancy, which run the gamut from cakes in the form of geisha girls to surreal ones incorporating all manner of flora, fauna and more. These days, the success of TV shows such as Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes, which give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the extensive work that goes into making decadent desserts, means that a grocery-story cake just won’t do for a discerning clientele bent on keeping up with the Kardashians – or, if they have the money, outdoing them altogether.
Sasha Chapman, acting senior editor at Walrus magazine and a well-known food writer, concurs: “The Food Network has a lot to answer for. It’s not okay to serve a lopsided cake anymore,” she says, going on to recount a story she heard about a woman who ordered a cake shaped like a Louis Vuitton handbag for her child’s first birthday. “It’s easier to spring for a $300 cake than an SUV. You’re proclaiming a lifestyle.”
As for the bakers’ part in all of this, Alison Fryer of Toronto’s Cookbook Store isn’t surprised that desserts have gone elaborate. Ultimately, she says, “cake designers are frustrated architects and engineers at heart.”
“When I first started out 15 years ago, there was only a handful of people in this industry,” says Bonnie Gordon, founder of the Bonnie Gordon College of Confectionary Arts. Although special occasions have always been celebrated with cakes, it was Martha Stewart who “really elevated the wedding cake,” steering it away from prim white tiers to something showstopping, Gordon says.
“It’s not a passing trend; it’s a new field of study,” she explains. “And the interest is international. Right now, I have a student from India, two from France, another from Brazil. They all come here because Toronto has some of the best cake designers in the world concentrated in one city.”
Take Jaime Ho, 34. One of Gordon’s alumni, the chartered-accountant-turned-cakemaker tuned into her true calling while watching an episode of Food Network Challenge. She now teaches the structured cakes course at the college and runs the Wicked Little Cake Company, which she opened in 2008.
