蛋糕制造者非凡的

在奥兰治县一家明亮通风的面包店, CUI alum Lindsey Sinatra ’07 has become one of the premiere cake-makers in California. “My cakes are whimsical and have a lot of movement and small detail to them,” Sinatra says. “我以蛋糕的多样性和趣味性而闻名. They can be anything from a beautiful fashion cake to a fun, sculpted giraffe.”

辛纳特拉为电影首映式制作了精美的蛋糕, 名人生日聚会和许多其他特殊场合. Her work has been featured on TV shows such as Food Network’s “The Challenge” and WE’s “Amazing Wedding Cakes.”“我参与过一些项目，但不知道自己在做什么, 但这也是挑战的一部分,她说。. “你永远不会做同样的事情. 我参与其中是为了找出我们该怎么做的乐趣. 每周都是新的挑战. 我很高兴我发现了蛋糕，因为这是一份社交工作.”

Sinatra was attending a community college when she discovered CUI through her sister’s recommendation. “我参观了校园，真的被吸引住了，”她说. 她被录取了，并“喜欢我在康科迪亚的经历，尤其是校园生活。. 我真的很喜欢我的朋友和活动. 我是同学指导组长，负责指导新生入学. I had really good professors in the art, English and psychology departments. 对我来说，这是一所完美的学校.” She was passionate about art, but wondered if she could make a career of it. 这导致了与崔教授尼古拉斯·克拉格尔的决定性时刻.

“Professor Krüger took a strong interest in my art and very much encouraged me as an artist,她说。. “他帮助我树立了信心. 我一直认为我的艺术是做作的，不严肃的, but he said that it has whimsy and tells a story like children’s literature. 他说我应该考虑儿童文学和插画. 这让我的艺术更有目的性. 他帮助我找到了自己作为艺术家的身份.” Sinatra looked into becoming an art teacher or doing art therapy for children but kept being drawn back to her first love: 3-D art. In the middle of her senior year at CUI she saw a show called “The Challenge” on the Food Network where competitors have eight hours to create a cake. 她说:“我以前从未见过蛋糕艺术，我很兴奋。. “I have always loved cooking but didn’t want to be stuck in a hot line in a kitchen. 这是美食与艺术的完美结合.”

第二天，辛纳屈出现在获胜的面包店, 哪个恰好是本地的, 想知道如何进入这个行业. She brought her art portfolio from one of her classes at CUI and was offered an internship on the spot. “It was completely amazing because within two days I’d gotten what I wanted,她说。. “这成了我生命中的激情所在.”

在CUI完成学位后，她早上4:30就去上班了.m.然后去上课，从下午2点到7点回去工作.m. 晚上的时间用来处理她的高级作品集. “I was taking eighteen units and working five days a week, but I was so stoked on life,她说。. “忙碌给了我能量，因为我喜欢忙碌.”

五年来，她尽其所能地学习烘焙, 装饰蛋糕和经营小生意. 然后，她开始了自己的事业，A Wish and A Whisk诞生了. “太可怕了，”她说. “I was making cakes out of rented commercial kitchen space or bakeries that would let me use their kitchens at night when they were closed. 我的车基本上就是个开着的面包店.” But the skills learned studying sculpture at Concordia translated well to cakes, she says. She decided she would be a specialist, making cakes by appointment only, no retail or walk-ins. And she would focus solely on cakes — no cookies, brownies or dessert stations.

Within months she was hired to make a 6-foot long Paris Opera House replica cake for the closing of the world tour of Phantom of the Opera in Los Angeles. Three weeks later she was hired to create a 10-foot-tall cake for the world premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in New York. 这两场演出都来自电视曝光. A Wish and a Whisk had competed twice on “The Challenge” and Sinatra had appeared on the Food Network with her previous bakery.

现在她面临着一项艰巨的任务. “They gave me a picture of a cake from the Harry Potter movie and said, ‘Replicate this,’她说。. “我完全没有准备. 我在忙乱. 他们给了我十天的时间来制作，并把它运到纽约.“她创造了一个钢和有机玻璃的结构, 围绕着它做蛋糕, 用干冰把它分成几块装在卡车上，运到纽约. 做蛋糕用了九桶软糖(一种蛋糕糖衣). “他们很喜欢，”她说. “它就在房间的正中央.”

从那时起, A Wish and A Whisk推出了特色蛋糕, 每一个独特的, 从婚礼到公司活动都可以. “I enjoy the thrill of seeing it come together and the fact that you’re giving it to someone to celebrate a big moment in their life. 它有这样一个目的，”辛纳特拉说. “蛋糕成为婚礼或活动的展示品. 人们喜欢和它拍照，谈论它，吃它. 我听客户说，‘人们谈论我的蛋糕比谈论我的婚礼还多.’”

2011年，A Wish and A Whisk开设了自己的面包店, a shop full of windows and a skylight which brings natural light into the workspace so Sinatra and her employees can see true color when they work. 她说，气氛通常是“六个笑着的女孩”. “我很挑剔，”辛纳特拉说. “I hire happy, spirited girls who are not competitive and who work as a team.”

在开始做蛋糕之前, 她和客户坐在一起面试, 学习关键细节，比如新娘和新郎是如何相遇的, 或者最喜欢的爱好. “我的蛋糕讲了一个故事，”她说. “I try to involve aspects of my clients and represent them as much as possible. 这和我在康科迪亚的作品有关. I find out what’s significant about this person’s life or this couple’s relationship and try to hide little elements of their story in the cake.”

A wedding cake she made last year bore a number of tastefully hidden elements: a globe with two suitcases, golf clubs hidden in the flower arrangements and a film reel to symbolize that the couple had met at film school. “这不是显而易见的，”辛纳特拉说. “It looks like a wedding cake, but when you get closer you see these things.”

Her cakes are labor-intensive, requiring 25 to 85 hours and costing as much as $16,000. 她用铅笔画蛋糕的草图, outlines the sketch in black pen and finishes in watercolor and colored pencils. 好的元素, 叫做"糖的细节",” are made ahead of time out of sugar paste which has the consistency of Play-Doh but dries quickly as hard as a jawbreaker. The cakes themselves are made of Italian merengue buttercream with whipped egg whites, 加热的糖和黄油. Cakes are refrigerated and pulled out for an hour or two at a time to be shaped and covered with details. 与一些装饰蛋糕不同，辛纳特拉蛋糕实际上味道很好. “To me, if your cake doesn’t taste good I don’t see the point in creating it,她说。. “我花了很多时间，并为我的蛋糕味道非常好而感到自豪. 它们都是用最优质的原料从零开始制作的. 我所有的口味都是经典舒适口味的翻版.”

Sinatra was hired to create 300 mini-cakes for the NBC televised ninetieth birthday of Golden Girl Betty White at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. 她说:“通用磨坊在不到两周的时间里给我打了电话. “我们必须匹配它们非常特定的颜色. I only had two employees at the time and we did an assembly line and plowed through it. 我认识的人最后几天都在这里画珍珠和拳击蛋糕. 这很有趣.”

Sinatra says she has done just what she was aiming for when she started A Wish and a Whisk: “I’m living what I was going for. 我并不是想拍什么电视剧. I just wanted to have a successful bakery where I could create my cakes, so I’m really quite happy.”

正如在 铜杂志2013年秋季