Tammy Elliot interviews Sylvia Weinstock in New York.
Photographs by Tommy Martin Tammy Elliot, President of Perfect Wedding Guide, recently sat down for a conversation with Sylvia Weinstock. Sylvia, known as Queen of Cakes, has been creating cake masterpieces since the mid 70's. She has attracted a star-studded clientele that includes Donald Trump, Michael Douglas &
Katherine Zeta-Jones and Mariah Carey, to name a few.
Part I of the Sylvia Weinstock interview
Below is Part II of the interview.
Tammy: After you decide the filling and match it with the cake…
Sylvia: Then we have the inside of the cake. We ask about the structure, such as whether you want it round or square, and we draw a sketch for you. You may have a florist who is decorating the room and want the colors to match, so we call him and he may e-mail me pictures of the
centerpieces and we take it from there.
T: You coordinate with some of the other vendors for the wedding?
S: Yes. Maybe it’s the fabric of a dress, or a design the bride is really wild for – we get lots of pictures in from brides. Sometimes the florist will even send me an example so I can get an idea of the true colors.
"...go to the baker and taste what you're buying... make sure they have a good reputation and [can] deliver..."
T: So you have a good theme going.
S: Yes, we have an idea of what we are going to do with it. We then have to schedule deliveries. Those are always very critical. A cake might have to be flown in, for example.
T: How do you fly them so they don’t get damaged?
S: Continental is our airline of choice. They hand-carry it on and off. It goes into cargo and gets very special treatment.
T: But you first must pack it up.
S: Yes, it goes in a corrugated box. As long as the plane lands gently and they know about that. If I am with a cake, I will tell the pilot there’s a wedding cake in cargo, use the whole runaway and don’t brake hard. They are very good about it, they glide in.
Sylva shows one of your cake designs on paper.
T: How often do you travel with the cake?
S: Depends upon whether the client is willing to pay the extra fee for it. It also depends on the size of the cake. For small cakes, they don’t need me. We do have cakes that fly to Palm Beach because we are working with The Breakers, and we went down once or twice to show them what we do, how we
put something together and what we do with it.
T: Do you normally fly a cake in pieces and then assemb
