SLICE OF HEAVEN
Stylish couples are going for chef-curated cakes that taste as good as they look
A MULTITIERED showstopping cake is one of the most anticipated parts of the nuptial ceremony — and yet it’s often the most disappointing. Pastry chef Erin Kanagy-Loux explains it matterof-factly: “Most wedding cakes don’t taste good.”
But all that has started to change as bakers leave behind over-the-top, cloying creations covered in fondant and sugar flowers in favor of a sweet new wave: natural, delicious cakes made from quality, seasonal ingredients.
“My focus is flavor first — I want the cake to taste good,” says Kanagy-Loux, who joined Mah-ZeDahr bakery (28 Greenwich Ave.; 212-498-9810, MahZeDahrBakery.com) last October after a fiveyear stint as executive pastry chef at Reynard at the Wythe Hotel, where she regularly baked for in-house wedding events. But, she adds, “the newer generation that’s on the age range of getting married is definitely going more toward this newer trend of bright and bold.” In March, Kanagy-Loux will spearhead the launch of Mah-ZeDahr’s wedding cake division, where founder and chef Umber Ahmad wants to make cakes representative of the betrothed rather than merely following trends. The happy couple will need to sit down with Kanagy-Loux at least two weeks in advance and answer questions about their relationship, their most loved desserts, their favorite celebrity wedding and the venue. Prices will start at $15 per head, and the influence of high-end restaurant menus is evident.
“[Kanagy-Loux] is on a whole other level. Her cakes at the Wythe were so stunning,” says Natasha Pickowicz, head pastry chef at Café Altro Paradiso and Flora Bar. “You’re getting something that isn’t churning out the same thing over and over — there’s the something bespoke to it.”
Pickowicz P also recently introduced duc more layer cakes at Flora and will be creating her first official offi wedding cake this spring.
For F Gramercy Tavern pastry chef che Miro Uskokovic, who has seen see his number of wedding cake requests req double in the past year, the shift to simpler, ingredient-forward forw creations is an extension of tthe slow-food movement.
“In the last 20 years, we all care where wh the meat comes from. But nobody nob really asks when it comes to dessert, ‘Where does the flour come from?’ And it’s really important,” says Uskokovic, who has seen an influx of dietary allergies and uses only local dairy products, and organic alternative sugars such as coconut, palm and sorghum, as well as alternative, gluten-free flours. “There’s a lot of intolerance out there.”
Uskokovic, who generally offers customers a set list of five cake flavors and chocolate or vanilla buttercream frosting at a $350, 20-person minimum, is also open to special requests. In fact, his top seller at Gramercy Tavern is his signature coconut dacquoise, a gluten-, dairy-, and nut-free cake coated with an egg-white-based marshmallow fluff. But, he says, “Ninety-nine percent of the time, they choose vanilla, because it’s white.”
Kanagy-Loux has observed a spike in frosting-free “naked cakes” and colorful geometric patterns with bohemian, Southwestern or Egyptian designs. And while her menu will feature classic flavors, it will also have less standard versions such as almond chiffon with vanilla custard and chocolate stout cake with salted caramel buttercream. “A lot of people want the basic chocolatechocolate, vanilla-chocolate, vanilla-vanilla, but I like to do a lot of very nontraditional flavors that aren’t very sweet,” she says. For example, when she features a seasonal signature item such as buckwheat chiffon with lemon verbena, the orders for it surge.
“Everybody wants to be unique,” she says. “You want to have that special curated beautiful cake.”