The Bakery Issue
Custom Cakes To
Celebrate Cakes de Fleur engineers fantastical designs only limited by the imagination
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f you’re a fan of Food Network, you’ve likely been wowed by the sugar-spun magic that airs on Cake Wars, Ace of Cakes, Ridiculous Cakes, Cake Masters—and the list goes on. So how do these bakers come to build such elaborate cakes out of simple batter and frosting? In Utah, Cakes de Fleur is in a position to answer that question. The bakery opened its doors in 2004 after owner and founder Laurlee Morrison left a career as a software engineer. Since then, she’s built a strong portfolio of corporations, celebrities and those looking for outrageous and delicious custom cake creations—ranging in size and scope that’s limited only by the imagination. In 2018, Adobe commissioned Cakes de Fleur to replicate its entire Lehi campus in cake. The final piece measured 4 x 8 feet, took six people to lift and served 500 people. Morrison’s engineering background helped her build the structure and coordinate the logistics behind the Adobe cake. “We couldn’t fit it through our bakery door so we had to make all the pieces in the kitchen and build it in our warehouse to get it out,” Morrison recalls. “We did a preliminary board to make sure it would fit in the truck, in the doors, and we had three routes mapped out at Adobe of how 30 Devour Utah • march 2019
BY HEATHER L. KING
to get the cake in the building. We ended up shutting down security at the front doors, taking out the glass and going down the stairs. We all felt like movie stars because people were videoing it. It was totally fun!” While Adobe was a feat in size, other cakes stun visually— both inside and out. A cake created for television chef Sandra Lee at a Sundance party was a realistic tree trunk design on the outside that featured a geometric red and black checkerboard inside to continue the woodsy motif. Geode cakes are also a trend that Morrison has been asked to replicate, while others want corporate logos or icons. Jet.com ordered an upright purple rocket ship surrounded by hundreds of cupcakes. The rocket required some thoughtful engineering because of the tiny touchpoints at the base of the cake. “You can’t have dimension without structure,” explains Morrison. “The structural part of this is really exciting to me.” Many clients expect Morrison and her director of operations and team of bakers and decorators to develop an entire concept, but IMDb had their own ideas on how to celebrate an executive’s 50th birthday. The movie and TV website’s graphic-design department envisioned an 80-pound cake that included edible gold leaf, gum paste snowflakes and exacting