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SET THE TABLE FOR ONE
By Lynne Konstantin
dorable, elegant, creative and
charming. Stacie Berman's
custom cake, cookie, cupcake
and cake-bite creations cover pretty
much any base her clients want and
the results are always spectacular.
From the time her bubbie, Ann
Goodman, and mother, Laurie
Winston, let her help them in the
kitchen, particularly with their young
protegee's favorite
chocolate-banana
cake and strudel,
Berman knew she
had inherited the
baking buzz. Years
later, a favorite
teacher at West
Hills Middle School
in Bloomfield Hills
taught her how to
properly frost a cake
in home-ec class.
"That's where
I made my first
shaped cake, a dog?
Berman remembers.
Baking remained
a fulfilling and thera-
peutic hobby while
Berman taught
elementary school
and then when her
own children were
born. Dusting off
her spatulas for her
girls' birthdays, Ber-
man received rave
reviews from friends
and family with a
turtle-shaped cake
and cupcakes for her
daughter Sloane's
first birthday, and
again for daughter Morgan's ladybug
birthday cake.
But it wasn't until she went out
with a group of girlfriends — provid-
ing the cake, of course: a sculptural
confection in the shape of a birthday
present, wrapped with gently curved
fondant ribbon — that the accolades
began to convince her she might be
on to something.
Two years ago, Berman debuted
Slo-Mo Cakes and Cookies (named af-
ter daughters Sloane, 5, and Morgan,
4), out of her home kitchen in Com-
merce. "I printed up some business
cards, started a Facebook page and
website, and with the help of great
friends and family, my name has got-
ten out there," says Berman.
Specializing in tiered and carved,
shaped cakes, Berman has become
a local favorite for kids'and adult
A
www.redthreadmagazine.com
birthday parties, engagement parties,
showers, bar and bat mitzvahs, wed-
dings and more.
With an audience grown accus-
tomed to being wowed by specialty
cakes and cookies on TV bak-
ing shows and plenty of local com-
petition, Berman sets herself apart
by meeting with clients, working
together to create a plan and finding
a creative way to deliver
exactly what they want.
"I love being creative
and using a lot of dif-
ferent techniques. But
overall, I like my cakes to
look clean and neat," says
Berman, which is why
she uses a lot of smooth
and pliable hand-cut
fondant and gum paste,
which is like an edible,
sugary Play-Dough.
What she delivers are
detailed, stylized works
of art. A shoebox cake
stands beside a white
chocolate Christian
Louboutin shoe with
glimmering, edible
beads; a jewelry box cake
brims with handmade
sugar jewels; a gradua-
tion cake serving more
than 100 people is a
life-sized replica of the
graduate's own prized
electric guitar, replete
with fondant-covered
silver-thread strings; and
a princess-pink castle
honored a birthday girl
with turrets topped
with conical spires, a
drawbridge entrance and pretty little
extras.
Berman also applies her imagina-
tion to cookies — favorites for party
favors: She has created Pinkalicious
cupcake-shaped cookies, sports
themed, pink owls, bride and groom
and more, as well as cake bites, in
flavors ranging from Butterfinger and
Oreo to pecan.
At the end of the party, however,
guests will remember one thing: How
did it taste?"I've paid a lot of money
for custom cakes that were gorgeous,
but the kids actually wouldn't eat it,"
says loyal client Renea Spiegel of her
sons Ari, 3, and Max, 4. "Now, my kids
say,'I want a Stacie cake?'
For more information, visit slomocakes.com or call
(248) 690-6630.
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RED MAD I March 2013 31