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Thursday, March 28, 2024

NY Cake Opens its Flagship Store in “Sweet Location”

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I wish I would have known before attending Law School that the most lucrative profession might be cake making.  All those weekends I spent baking apple pie with my grandmother I viewed as a hobby- licking the bowl, eating the batter, devouring the pie before it was fully done-were all trademarks of my childhood.  When did making cakes become an industry-and why didn’t my family tell me before the fierce competition set in.  The opening of NY Cake’s 6,000 square foot flagship store by doyenne Lisa Mansour along with Jenny Kashashian on 118 West 22nd Street is paradigmatic of this unstoppable trend.  Instead of tech, real estate, or hedge funds the new billionaires will be the cake bakers.

 

Forbes next cover will feature those who made billions on cakes with a supplementary issue on the best places to buy ingredients, what are some new exciting innovations in cake baking, and where the industry is headed.  All kidding aside, it is doubtful Joan Mansour knew 30 years ago when she was baking cakes with her daughters that they might be part of a growing Empire whose potential is seemingly endless.   It all started with the spectacular birthday cakes Joan created for her daughters that led to a neighborhood buzz with community members requesting lessons in cake decorating.  Joan started selling cake supplies in the back of her husband’s pharmacy on 50th Street and relocated to more than three different locations as the business expanded.

 

The store opened in 1980 as the Chocolate Gallery and became NY Cake in 1989.  Lisa Mansour oversees the cafe and classes while Jenny Kashashian handles the retail end which includes e-commerce.  The sisters grew up watching their mother Joan hold cake decorating classes in their dining room and attended cake shows around the globe as a family.  This magnificent store which sells cake supplies, and bakes the cake on the premises with an accompanying cafe nearby-is genius.  The six-seat cafe, overseen by Lisa Mansour offers macarons, cream puffs and doughnuts from Du’s Donuts.  The baking supplies include pans of all shapes and sizes and an array of cookie cutters and decorative chocolates that is out of this world.

 

The Mansours pride themselves in providing high caliber products to homemakers that mimic the A-grade quality of commercial kitchens around the world.  Some of the specialty items they sell include alphabet silicone molds, silicone chocolate molds, cupcake boxes, polycarbonate chocolate molds, fondant cutters, cake pans, fondant tools and much more. The store also designs its own retail products including cupcake shaped oven mitts and blinged out dessert tables.  Moreover, there is a 20,000 square foot facility in Yonkers replete with baking supplies that caters to retail mail order as well as wholesale divisions where customers can place an order online and pick it up in the warehouse with only one hour advance notice.

 

Entering the store there was a 3-D mural depicting the Manhattan skyline created by cake artist Colette Peters which was exclusively comprised of baking tools such as cake candles, cupcake tins and cake molds. While “NY Cake” has been in the business of selling cake supplies for decades this is the first time they are producing and selling custom cakes with organic ingredients.  The cakes are decorative, beautiful and expensive with prices ranging from $1,500 to $10,000.  The space contains an “Academy” where people will be flying in from all over the world to learn the intricacies involved in baking a cake. In the Cake Academy students can learn how to bake and decorate in a state-of-the-art kitchen that can host 22 students seated and 30 standing- I would rather stand so I can burn off some calories.  Classes are led by master Lisa Mansour along with renowned guest instructors Collette Peters of “Colette’s Cakes” and Michelle Doll of “Michelle Doll Makes.”  Prices for the three-day-workshop will range from $40 to $595.  There are classes in November for $85 that teach students how to make a Thanksgiving Drip Cake and a cake decorating class for $145 that is for beginners. I can’t imagine coming home from college and telling my mother I would be attending NY Cake Academy.

I am wondering if they will soon be giving out degrees where you can say you have A PhD-literally “Papa Has Dough”-in cake making.  The Academy is also open for kids birthdays, bachelorette parties (you have easy access to whipped cream to put on your male dancer) and corporate events with prices ranging from $100-$150 per person.  The opening night this past Thursday October 18th featured a number of “Cake Celebrities” including renowned cake decorator Ron Ben-Israel.

 

Ron called himself a “poor shlepper” and when I asked him about his business he told me to read it on his website-apparently cake making can go to your head.  Ben-Israel said he doesn’t care about making cakes for celebrities since all his clients are stars.  The new trend in celebrity one-upmanship is custom made cakes that they can post on Instagram that blow their fans away.  Who can forget LeBron James 26th year birthday cake that featured 14K gold flakes; more than 10,000 Swarovski crystals and a gold crown perched atop.

 

Tom Cruise’s cake for his 50th birthday was silmilarly spectacular, featuring a miniature version of himself in a button down shirt and underwear from “Risky Business” and a replica of the plane from “Top Gun.”  A rumor going around the party was that Ben-Israel had designed Britney Spears’ birthday cake and so despite my better instincts, I looked him up on the internet to see if he was “all that.”  The history of Ben Israel whose cakes are referred to as “The Manolo Blahnik” of wedding cakes is unique-to say the least.  Ben-Israel started off as a modern dancer and ended up as a baker discovered by Martha Stewart who saw one of his cakes in a window-this is a “Hollywood True Story.”

 

He has produced confectionery pieces for the opening of the Mandarin Oriental and Ritz Carlton and has appeared on The David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey Show.  He also appears as a host and judge on a number of cake shows including “Sweet Genius” and “Cake Wars.”  The only information he gave was that he learned all he knows from the NY Cake Academy who let him attend free classes in return for working as an assistant.  After I had tasted the delicious white pretzels, pastries and chocolate covered popcorn (which was all free) I was desperate to leave before I needed to be rolled out on one of the cooking pans.

 

 

 

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