A Lot Of Cake!

Linda Kellert has baked a few things in her
time but says, "never anything on such a
large scale" as the cake she created for her
son and daughter-in-law's Nov. 26, 2014,
wedding.
"The kids wanted me to make the cake
because I've been cooking and baking for
years, and I guess they like my desserts,"
said Kellert of Franklin.
Not a professional baker, she first made a
cake for her daughter-in-law's bridal shower.
"When they told me they wanted me
to make the wedding cake, too, I took a
refresher class in cake decorating," she said.
"I never made a wedding cake before and
was really nervous about baking something
so large. It's not so easy."
Working alone, she said,
"It took me four days to
make the cake and decorate
it. There were four tiers but
it was too tall so the top
tier was left separate on
the cake table. The bottom
tier weighed 40 pounds and
was chocolate, chocolate
chip with chocolate mousse
filling," Kellert said. "The
next tier was white cake
with Bavarian cream and
raspberry puree, the third
was a coconut cake with
coconut buttercream filling
and the fourth tier was the
chocolate chip again."
The bride and groom,
Rachel and Adam Kellert,
Rachel and Adam Kellert's wed-
who live in Farmington
ding cake, topped with Superman
Hills, are old friends who
and Wonder Woman.
reconnected in 2013 after
Rachel took a position as
a fourth-grade teacher at
Hillel Day School, where Adam teaches art.
"They knew each other from high school
but had not seen each other for 14 years,"
Linda Kellert said.
The wedding ceremony took place at the
Sara and Morris Tugman Bais Chabad Torah
Center in West Bloomfield, where Kellert and
her husband, Dr. Arthur Kellert, are members,
and where Rabbi Shneur Silberberg, a friend
of the groom, officiated.
Rachel is the daughter of Andrea and Jay
Levin of West Bloomfield, and Lisa and David
Steingold of Farmington Hills.
Kellert transported the cake to the recep-
tion at Fishbone's in Southfield, with the
help of her brother, former Detroiter Michael
Magid of Lutz, Fla.

PHOTOS BY: PENNY OZINGA PHOTOG RAPHY

continued from page C22

The Feldmans: Stephen, Michael, Liz, the groom's sister Stephanie
and Susie in the outdoor, mountainside area where the wedding
ceremony took place.

Using cake-plate separators and pegs that
fit into them, they had to measure the height
of each cake and cut the pegs to match, but
they had some difficulty getting the large
bottom tier to sit flush.
"I gave my brother heck since he is a
structural engineer and even he couldn't get
the pegs right," she said.
"For the bottom tier we made a special
box on top of a piece of plywood, which
I held in the back of our SUV trunk area,"
Kellert said. "My brother held onto the other
two in the back seat and the fourth was up
front on the floor."
Atop the cake was an unusual figurine, but
one with personal meaning.
"Adam has been a serious comic book col-
lector since he was about 6," Kellert said.
"And they wanted a superhero topper." She
special-ordered one with Superman and
Wonder Woman beneath a white-glittered
crescent moon.
"Superman was over the moon for Wonder
Woman, as Adam is for Rachel," she said.
They were in awe of the display.
"We were so excited that Linda wanted
to make our cake," Rachel Kellert said.
"We totally trusted her to make something
incredible. I loved every part. It was beauti-
ful, really cool and tasted delicious. Wedding
cake is never that good. The cake really was
incredible."
Linda Kellert said the best compliment was
that by the end of the evening, there was no
cake left. "It was amazing to me as the lay-
ers measured 14 inches, 12 inches, 10 inches
and 8 inches," she said. "That's a lot of cake.
But they ate it all. I couldn't believe it."

Have Baked Goods, Will Travel

Susie Feldman traveled a bit farther with
her baked goods, taking three huge challahs
and hundreds of pieces of mandelbread to
Vail, Colo., for the Aug. 24, 2014, wedding of
her stepson, Michael, and his bride, who live
about an hour and half away in Arvada.
"Homemade challah graces our Shabbos

Susie Feldman's challahs,
straight from the oven.

dinner table every week," Feldman said.
"Served warm with Shabbos dinner, it tastes
as if it was just baked. I have been baking
challahs for the past eight years. Before that,
my mother was the master challah maker for
our family.
"When we flew out to Colorado to meet
Michael's future in-laws, I brought a home-
made challah for Shabbat dinner. My future
daughter-in-law, Liz, asked if I would bake
challahs for the wedding. I didn't think she
was serious until she asked before the wed-
ding as well."
Next came the request for the mandel-
bread, which, once Feldman got started,
became 400 individual pieces, each one
hand-dipped in chocolate.
A special travel bag was designated solely
for the baked goods, and was hand-carried
onto the plane en route to Vail.
Feldman's challahs are the result of years
of upgrades.
"On Shabbat you can find braided challahs
or round challahs on our table," she said. The
challahs at the wedding were braided with
eight and nine braids.
"Our recipe is unique," said Feldman who
is married to Stephen and lives in West
Bloomfield. Michael also is the son of former
Detroiters Bobbie and Lee Golani of Fort
Wayne, Ind.
"We combined recipes to come up with
the recipe we now use," Feldman said.
"We had one of my daughter Hannah's
Camp Ramah friends over from Toronto
one Shabbos. When I said I was going to
bake challah he said, 'Let me do it.' He then
showed me that he puts a streusel topping
onto his challah, which I now do as well.
"Gone are the days of challahs with
sesame seeds and poppy seeds. We are
a definite sweet challah family," Feldman
said of the type that was sliced and shared
with wedding guests who celebrated both
in the wooded outdoors and inside a timber
and stone mountain-pavilion tucked into a
Colorado mountainside.

continued on page C26

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celebrate! I March 2015