Archive: Around Town

When you open the new Brides Magazine you will find that one of America's Most Beautiful Wedding Cakes comes from Lansing sugar artist Marion Cardwell Ferrer.  Ferrer, who owns Sincredible Pasteries, based her design on a vintage table cloth and  traditional themes.  "The something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue theme went with the vintage idea," Ferrer says.  "The nest was for a new beginning in their home, the pearls were borrowed, the blue birds and a vintage mercury-glass texture was blue, and the vintage style was old."

This is the third time Ferrer has been featured in Brides Magazine.  The first was in a 2003 article featuring MacKenzie-Childs called 'Small Town Wedding.'   In 2006 she was featured again when the magazine published its 'Cake Walk' article featuring 60 cakes.  The newest feature presents 50 wedding cakes from sugar artists across the United States.  The cakes are featured on the magazine's Web site, and brides, grooms, wedding guests, or wedding professionals are encouraged to vote.  The winner will receive the winning cake for his or her wedding.

Ferrer had to compete to be featured in the articles, and this feature was no exception.  "It was a three part process," she says.  "They ask you to submit sketches, and they pick from the sketches.  They called me back, and said, 'Now we need a sample.'  Once they receive those there's a second cut.  Then you send the actual cake."


She actually hired a driver to bring her entry to the magazine offices.  "I paid a driver to drive it into New York City, because I couldn't get there that day," she says.  "A lot of them had to be shipped across the United States by mail.  I'm sure some of them were damaged, so they have sugar artists there to fix them as best they can.  I knew that if mine was driven in it would have a better chance of surviving.  And it did."

Ferrer routinely goes beyond clients' expectations, and that accounts for her success at getting published as well.  When Brides Magazine asked her to compete in the 'Small Town Wedding' feature, she did what she could to insure they would pick her cake.  "That was stressful for me," she says.  "I really wanted the job, so I stayed up late making these faux sample cakes.  I made extra cookies and went the extra mile to show them some other things, thinking that maybe in the future I could do something with them, too."

Her strategy worked.  "It was really big for me, because it's kind of like getting a credit card: if you don't have credit they don't want you to have a credit card," she says.  "I knew this was going to be my chance to get my foot in that door, to be published.  It was something I always wanted, so I gave it everything I had to get the job.  And I did.  It was a great experience."

Last October Ferrer held a grand opening of Sincredible Pastries' new kitchen.  Decked out in pink, the vintage design features a professional baker's kitchen, a soda fountain, and an area with tables that is reminiscent of 1950s ice cream parlors.  This provided a new home for the 17 year old business in which she not only creates cakes, cookies, and other delectables, but also a space that she uses to conduct baking classes and to rent out for parties.

Ferrer says it took about a week to create her latest entry.  While the process was similar to that she uses with clients, the emphasis and the majority of her time was spent on the design rather than the actual cake.  She spent days creating full color sketches with color swatches. 

While many sugar artists are favoring modern designs, Ferrer calculated that her cake would stand out if the took a more traditional approach.  "I did kind of go in that direction.  Also, because I opened this kitchen it's all about vintage.  This is my year for that and it's good karma for me to do something that's really in my bones and in my spirit.  And it happens to be that it got in."

Ferrer says that very modern cakes are 'in' now, including cakes with damask prints, Indian henna painting and oriental themes.  While most brides in our area want traditional themes, Ferrer says she enjoys it when she is challenged to come up with something different.  "I do more traditional things, but every year I get what I call a 'favorite bride' who pushes me to the extreme with design elements, which is really fun," she says.  "Every year I have one or two people who don't want something traditional.  I try to encourage people to look outside the box when it comes to their cake, because you can really have anything you want."

The cake is featured in 'Our 50 Favorite Cakes' in the current issue of Brides Magazine.  If you are voting, Ferrer's cake is on the magazine's Web site, second-to-last column in the second-to-last row.  It's a four tiered vanilla fondant cake wrapped with pearls, with blue, pink, and yellow icing.  It is topped with a pair of bluebirds and a nest.  The cake pictured is really frosted Styrofoam.  It was constructed that way to prevent it melting under the photographers studio lights.  But if Ferrer's cake receives the most votes the winner will get the real thing, beautiful and delicious.

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