Maker of specialty cakes in Ross meets towering challenges with creativity
When she was downsized from her job as a designer with an architectural firm in the 2007 recession, Nancy Becker turned to baking to help pass the time.
Her cakes were so fancy, orders began to pour in from family and friends — so many that she and her husband, Paul, eventually rented space in a commercial kitchen and Nancy began studying at Julie Bashore's Sugar Arts Institute in Ephrata, Lancaster County.
In 2012, the Beckers opened their own bakery, Madison Ave. Specialty Cakes, in Ross.
Paul, who is a Pittsburgh police major crimes detective, bakes, while Nancy sculpts and decorates, drawing on her engineering, as well as artistic, skills.
“You have to have a good sense of three dimensions, an eye for detail, and plenty of patience,” says Nancy Becker, who carves every cake freehand and never uses a mold.
She has polished her skills by studying with other professionals, including Wendy Kromer, a contributor to Martha Stewart Living, at her Sandusky, Ohio, studio.
Last December, Becker spent a week crafting a 3-foot-tall Christmas tree with handmade ornaments and hand-piped chocolate branches. Everything was edible except the lights. She has made a carved turkey cake for a Charles Dickens-themed holiday party and a roasted pig with an apple in its mouth for a summer barbecue.
More recent creations include a standing R2-D2 for a “Star Wars” enthusiast, a bloody zombie and a 3-foot-tall Eiffel Tower, commissioned by a husband for his wife's 40th birthday. Working from detailed images of the iconic Paris monument, Becker spent 12 hours decorating that cake with intricate details and a pink fondant bow.
Her Pittsburgh cake — which is stacked with a Heinz ketchup bottle, Primanti Brothers sandwich, a Klondike and an Iron City beer can — won “best decorated” in the Midwife Center's 2011 Let Them Eat Cake contest.
But the project that set the bar was a precise replica of Oakland's Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum for its centennial celebration in 2010, Becker says. “We visited the site to take measurements so the cake would be made exactly to scale, and worked off 100-year-old blueprints.”
Large enough to serve 300, the cake took four days to make and cost about $2,000.
Although the Beckers often are commissioned by businesses and corporations, most of their work is for individuals who want a show-stopping way to celebrate a memorable occasion, such as a bridal shower or wedding, a christening, a milestone birthday or a college graduation.
Mike Wiedt of Wexford discovered the Beckers' cakes when he was looking for something special for a gathering of his church choir.
“One couple puts a leg lamp in their window during the holidays, so I came up with the idea of a leg-lamp cake,” Wiedt says. “I wanted it to be life-size.”
Becker used a fishnet stocking to create impressions on the leg, which was made of frosted Rice Krispies treats, and then piped the indentations with royal icing. The lampshade was the cake, which made transporting the finished product a feat unto itself.
“That was tough because it was top-heavy,” Becker says. “We use internal structures to stabilize a lot of our cakes, but we always take a repair kit just in case. I hold the cake in the back of the van and Paul drives. He goes slowly and gives other cars a wide berth.”
Wiedt has ordered several cakes from the Beckers, including a jukebox with a working coin slot that played music. “It was so over the top,” Wiedt says, “I almost didn't want to cut it.”
The Beckers make only customized cakes, cupcakes and cookies. Layer cakes can be as small as nine inches, but everything is made to specification. Nancy Becker meets with each client to brainstorm on a theme and develop a design. “She puts her heart and soul into it and makes you feel like you're part of the process,” Wiedt says.
Adrianne Holmes of the North Side first sampled Becker's work — a Louis Vuitton purse cake — at a friend's 40th birthday party.
“You couldn't tell it wasn't an actual purse, it was so realistic,” Holmes says. Now a steady customer, she has had Becker create a 2-foot-tall djembe drum for her musician boyfriend and a movie-reel cake that incorporated photographs of the couple.
“I've said to her, ‘I know this is a crazy idea, but …' and she's never said ‘No,' ” Holmes says. “She finds a way to make it work.”
The Beckers serve a lot of brides, but wedding cakes aren't always their fanciest creations.
“We've done a Great Gatsby cake with an art deco theme, and a Lego cake because the groom was into Legos,” Nancy Becker says, “but the trend overall is toward traditional and classic.”
Other life events lend themselves more to one-of-a-kind confections, like the 1946 Cadillac cake commissioned for a man's 80th birthday.
Graduations make for one of the Beckers' busiest times of year. “Graduations are huge,” says Nancy Becker, who once created an exact replica of Penn State's mascot, the Nittany Lion, by airbrushing tan fondant to simulate Indiana limestone.
Clients have their choice of batters from Paul Becker's secret recipes, as well as gourmet fillings. The buttercream is made with just four ingredients, including one that gives the frosting enough body to be shaped.
Jeanie Jho of McCandless says the cakes are more than a visual treat. “They taste as amazing as they look,” says Jho, who has had the Beckers create cakes for her children's birthdays, including one with characters from Marvel comics.
Madison Ave. Specialty Cakes: 9 94 Perry Highway, Ross, 412-364-3287
Deborah Weisberg is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.
