Lauren Kitchens = Cake Coolness

Ok, Lauren Kitchens is not my best friend (yet). I may or may not have only met her this week, but let me tell you something- she is awesome. She’s friendly, down to earth, HILARIOUS, and she makes the coolest freaking cakes!  This week, Lauren graced ISAC with her cake making super-powers. She joined forces with our resident super hero, Chef Nicholas, to teach students how to make a Modern Marie Antoinette cake, and yesterday she taught 13 lucky students how to make a Yoda cake! I was able to sit in on both classes, and seriously… they were so much fun! I’m actually pretty jealous I didn’t actually get to MAKE either the Marie Antoinette or Yoda cakes. Sad day. However, I got to hang out with Lauren, her assistant Jessie, and all of the amazing students in both of the classes, so I’m still counting it as a win! If you would like to see some of the process shots from the Modern Marie Antoinette and Yoda classes, please check out our facebook page: www.facebook.com/ChefNicholasLodge

Lauren was kind enough to talk to me about her cakes, teaching, modeling chocolate, and being a competitor on Food Network: Challenge. Spoiler Alert: super sweet deals at the end! Without further ado, here is my interview with LK (that’s my new BFF nickname for her. I’m pretty sure she loves it).

Stephanie: You are known for your amazing character cakes; the Yoda class you are teaching here at ISAC sold out very quickly! How do you prepare before beginning a new character cake for the first time?

Lauren Kitchens: I can tell you how the Yoda cake came about. I mainly do wedding cakes at my shop: 90% wedding and 10% special occasion cakes. Former brides call all the time for baby shower cakes, kids birthdays, husbands’ birthdays, things like that, and end up turning into permanent customers. So, a former bride called and said her husband was turning 40 and she wanted to do a Star Wars themed cake. I said, “Great, what do you want to do?” She said, “I don’t know, you can have creative license.” I said, “what about Yoda?!” Sometimes I can tell when a something has the possibility of being a class, so when I’m making the cake, I’ll photograph my process. I was surprised how easy it was to make the Yoda cake; I posted the cake on Facebook and it blew up! It got a lot of response from cake people, and it got so many requests for class requests that I thought, “ok I’m going to turn it into a class.” You do this for long enough, and you can predict what students want to learn. It was really hard to do that at first, but you can sort of predict they want to make standing characters exactly the way it appears on the page. And essentially that’s what the Yoda class is; it’s more about replicating the character. We’re using modeling chocolate and cake and the image of Yoda to do that, but students can really apply the techniques they are going to learn in creating any other character that they would want to create.

S: So, it’s not just about making YODA, it’s about applying what you’re teaching them in the class to make any 3D standing figure that they want?

LK: Yeah. The most important thing for me, as a teacher, is to show them techniques that can be applied to lots of different projects, because I want students to feel that they have value in the class.

S: They will take more away from it then just creating a cool, specific themed cake that one client might want.

LK: Yeah, so even though it seems real polarizing, and it’s just Yoda, you can really use the techniques that I teach in the Yoda class to make a 3D dog, or any standing or sitting figure. I think some of the students get that, and I hope they do, but I think a lot of them just love Yoda, and want to make a Yoda cake! Ha!

S: When a client comes to you and says I want a Yoda cake, or I want a dog cake, how do you start your design? Do you look at pictures, do you go online, do you maybe watch Star Wars, or do you just look at a picture and go for it?

LK: I go to Google and I search as many images as I can find. I’ll normally print out several images and put them on the wall and just stare at them. From one of those images, Stephanie, I can normally find one that’s good enough for me to blow up and create a template. Images are really important; it’s replica work so it’s made to look like something, and I never want it to look like a cake. I want it to look like the item it actually is. Templates and imagery are crucial because if I were just trying to go from the Yoda that I have stored in my mind it would be really terrible! It would look like green something!

S: Much like our own Chef Nicholas your cake decorating classes and demos are very popular and you offer DVDs and Craftsy classes. What led you to start teaching and sharing your cake decorating skills?

LK: I was on Food Network: Challenge and one of the cakes I made was for a Sesame Street challenge. On that cake I made Elmo, but what was on that cake that was impressive to the audience was that I “Muppetized” the judges that judged that Challenge. I turned all of the judges into Muppets! People started calling saying things like: I want to host a class and I want you to teach us how to make Muppets, I want to make myself a Muppet, how do I turn my husband into a Muppet? It just turned into this request that I could no longer really refuse. From that class, the character sculpting class series, I was able to design more classes. As an instructor I show people how to recreate. Whether it’s a Muppet, Yoda, a dog, or a purse, I’m showing people how to recreate an object in cake. But the irony is 90% of the actual work I do is wedding cakes, so it’s like I’m two different people.

S: You are teaching Lauren and wedding cake extraordinaire Lauren!

LK: Yeah!

Muppet Cake Class taught by Lauren Kitchens at ISAC

(The Muppet with the cookie in his hand is our very own muppetized Scott!)

S: What do you like best about teaching since it’s a newer aspect to your cake-decorating career

LK: It IS a newer aspect; I’m starting my fifth year as an instructor. What I like most is the connection I can make with cake people. For 15 years I’ve been dealing with clients, brides, wedding florists, photographers. I don’t have anybody to commiserate with, and then you get around cake people and you instantly have a connection with these people! We go through the same things and we have the same concerns and most of the times the same wants and needs, and the same passions. So that- I like the people connection. What I like least about teaching is the travel and how taxing that is for me, physically and emotionally, because I’m away from my family.

S: And traveling with cake supplies, I’m sure all of our blog readers will understand, even if you’re just driving down the road with a wedding cake, can be stressful!

LK: I know! And I ship all my supplies with me, so it’s a big thing. But I keep doing it cause it’s a lot of fun!

S: Like you said you can connect with cake people on a personal level and it’s not about a conflict of interest with a competing bakery, you’re sharing your skills and knowledge with them, and becoming friends.

LK: Absolutely. I think because of my position as instructor, to help and teach, I’m willing to share more because I don’t find my students a threat. My bread and butter is wedding cakes, that’s where it’s at. I’m not really making a full-fledged career out of teaching because the wedding cakes take most of my time, so I’m definitely open with the information that I want to give. It’s just a great network of people to be in. And the students are very loyal; I don’t think there is one student taking the Yoda class that I don’t know.

S: In Chef Nicholas’ class, we see the many of the same people over and over, and when we see new people, we start seeing THEM over and over again! It’s a very tight knit community, and once you get in, you’re welcomed with open arms.

LK: It’s really true. I see instructors who were very successful, but they stopped teaching and get forgotten, for the most part. So we always have to be on our toes, always creating something new. I’ve just got this entrepreneurial spirit that I just can’t stop if I wanted to!

S: You mentioned that your teaching career started with the Muppet class, and you have taught several classes with us at ISAC in the past, and you have taught all over the world. What has been the most fun, or the most interesting class that you have taught?

LK: The most satisfying class I have ever taught was Harry Potter’s Sorting Hat. It was a small private class at my studio, and there were only four students. It was the most organic, in the sense of you can make this your own, with the folds, and the leather, and the face, and the expression, and the pinching and the prying. It was intimidating to the students at first, and I said you have to just let go, follow what I do, but if you don’t do it exactly the way I do, that’s absolutely fine; the sorting hat comes in all different expressions. The end results were five Sorting Hats, each with a different facial expression, but it was all the same character. It was fantastic. Ironically, I don’t get that class requested, ever!

S: Well, maybe it was serendipity that it worked out that way.

LK: I taught it one time, it was the most satisfying experience of all the classes I’ve taught, and it just never gets requested. I don’t understand why the sorting hat wouldn’t get requested but Yoda would. The sorting hat is a witch’s hat/a wizard’s hat, which is a very common thing for cake-makers to get requested.

S: Be careful what you wish for! Maybe after this interview you’ll get more requests!

LK: Maybe so!

 

S: You appeared on the show Food Network Challenge several times. I think if people have watched that show, they will recognize you and your cakes. I watched the Muppet one myself. In fact, anyone who has been to ISAC has seen the Chef Nicholas Muppet you made. Can you share a little bit of what that experience was like on the competitor side of the camera? On the viewer side it seems stressful, and fast paced, crazy and exciting. What was it like to design and make the cakes on that show and to deal with the judges?

LK: I always say this, to wrap up the emotion of being on the show in a nutshell: it was easier giving birth than it was to do a Food Network: Challenge. I did the show for a year, and I did four episodes. Stephanie, I was lucky enough to be a competitor on that show when they were making great cakes. It went from competition TV to reality TV. I stopped doing the show when they started that reality turn. I had three months advanced notice, I was able to practice, and I was able to get it down. That is why I was able to thrive on that show. When it went to reality TV garbage, they were giving me two weeks notice, maybe, to show up. I have a shop; I can’t drop everything and do that. But, that being said, I competed during the glory days of that series. It was taxing, and it was stressful. People ask me, “Well why did you go back?” What I say to them is that I wanted to grow; I wanted to grow as a cake artist. Nothing, and I didn’t know this until now, but nothing makes you grow as a cake artist better than competing because it forces you to push your limits. Clients don’t really force you to push your limits. Competition does that. I’m a bit impulsive anyway, and a big risk taker, I mean I own a wedding cake bakery, so I’m up to the challenge of doing it. But, I don’t want to do it again! I would never do it again; I don’t need to. The thrill of being on TV is not what it’s cracked up to be. It’s really easy to get on TV, almost anyone can get on TV, and it’s not that special. There is no fame to be had. When I first started competing, and the episodes started to air, I would put on my bakery website, www.fancycakesbylauren.com, As Seen On the Food Network. I started getting less calls from clients. I thought, what is going on here? A wedding planner told me that she wanted to bring one of her clients in for a wedding cake, and her client said, “I don’t want to see her, she’s on Food Network, she’s probably way to expensive.”

S: Oh, interesting, so it didn’t really help your business. It was a hindrance.

LK: It hurt the business, but it launched a teaching career. There are pros and cons. So, when you go on fancycakesbylauren.com you have to dig to find that I was ever on food network.

S: Well, if wedding cakes are your bread and butter and people were afraid they couldn’t afford you, then I can understand that. Can you go over the cakes you made on the show with us? Which was your favorite and which was the most challenging

LK: I did a Disney challenge first, and I made a Mary Poppins cake. And because that was my first competition, I can’t believe we finished the cake, but it was all right! The second was Sesame Street, we placed second but honestly I felt like we won because I launched a career from that episode. It doesn’t matter if you win; honestly, all that matters is the work you put out there. The third and fourth challenges I won. The third was a newlywed challenge and it was a mystery challenge, so you didn’t really know what you were going to make until you showed up. It was one of those ridiculous things. I won that one, but I wasn’t too impressed. But the best cake as far as quality was the SpongeBob Challenge. I made a Mr. Krabs cake, and the judges hailed it as the best cake ever seen on Food Network.

 

 

S: Wow, how ’bout that!

LK: Eh. I didn’t make any money from that comment! I use it because Nick always tells me to collect jewels, put them in your purse, and use them whenever you can. So they said that it was the best cake ever made on Food Network, do I believe that? No. I have my favorites, and that is a favorite, and it was great, but so what? People remember me for the Muppets. The Muppet cake had so many technical flaws, and the SpongeBob cake was technically perfect, absolutely perfect. Not one flaw in that entire competition, but did it have the charm of the Muppet cake? And the Muppet cake was an extraordinarily clever cake, but it was technically deficient to win first place against the person who beat me. You can’t downplay the charm of cake, and even though that cake was second place it was the cake everyone remembers because they were so taken with it, they were charmed by it. That’s better than first place. 

S: I read online and the Meet Lauren section on Craftsy that you cite using modeling chocolate as a turning point in your cake decorating career; can you share some of your reasons for preferring to use it over fondant or gumpaste?

LK: I’ll tell you what I say to all the students, there is a place for modeling chocolate, there is a place for fondant, and there is a place for gumpaste. I’m well aware of where everything fits and I don’t have a preference, but I understand the need for modeling chocolate and how it can really up your game. I started using modeling chocolate on my second Food Network: Challenge. I thought, “there’s got to be something better for sculpting than fondant”. Fondant is squishy, and elastic, and cushy, and it bounces back. I can’t get a shape to stay. I was watching Food Network and some other cake decorators were using modeling chocolate, so I found a recipe and I started working with it. And it was clay- it was CLAY! It was sweet and staying put. The things I was able to do overnight! Stephanie, modeling chocolate changed my game overnight. That’s why the focus of my teaching career has been around modeling chocolate. Because talent will get you so far, but if you don’t understand the techniques and the supplies you need to use, you won’t be able to reach your full potential. I had the talent the whole time; I just hadn’t had modeling chocolate. Now that I have it, I’m able to make the cakes that are in my head.

S: Do you have a modeling chocolate recipe that you would be willing to share with our blog readers?

LK: Yes I do! (A PDF of Lauren’s recipe is available for download below this comment, and for reference, watch Lauren make modeling chocolate for you here)

Modeling-Chocolate-Recipe.pdf

S: What advice or tips can you share with our readers who would like to create gravity defying cakes or character cakes but are nervous to give it a try? Besides taking one of your amazing classes of course!

LK: Hm, other than my Craftsy classes? I think modeling chocolate is the first step to gravity defying because you are able to sculpt modeling chocolate into shapes that don’t require support or drying time. So even if they just start playing with it, they’ll be like, “oh, I got this Christmas tree to stand up with no support, no drying time, no wires!” And that is gravity defying.

S: I have never tried modeling chocolate myself, but after watching your Craftsy classes I thought, “Man, I have got to try that!” My new goal! And my last question: What cake are you most happy with, or which cake has brought you the most happiness?

LK: The most challenging cakes I make are the character cakes: the animals, people, characters. The challenge with that is to breath life into them. What really helps to breathe in that life are really great eyes; you have to put life in the eyes. There are some animal cakes I have made that just don’t see to have that life, but there are other cakes, like the Yoda cake and my bulldog cakes, where somehow I have been able to turn the eyes into something so lifelike that you feel like they are no longer cake. I don’t know how that happens; I don’t know why I can make one cake come to life and another cakes I can’t. Maybe it depends on the day or my mood, but it is the one time I feel like I am a true artist.

S: Well, Lauren, Thank you very much for talking to us!

LK: You’re Welcome! 

As a special treat, Lauren has shared some links for 50% off her Craftsy classes (just click the class name): Introduction to Modeling Chocolate, Modeling Chocolate Magic, and Gravity Defying Cake Designs! If you would like to purchase any of Lauren’s instructional DVDs there are available in our store and online here.

Thanks again Lauren- for teaching at ISAC this week, for chatting with me, for sharing your recipes and Craftsy Classes, and being my best friend! I bet you wish she was your best friend too.

Sweetly Yours, 

Stephanie

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