Weddings Winter 2009 > Planner

Mark Joseph Cakes

A classically trained pastry chef and Culinary Institute of America grad, Mark Randazzo specializes in flavor alchemy; think raspberry, vanilla, and pistachio fillings combined with Valrhona chocolate. His wife, Leslie, ensures that clients’ visions are executed to perfection—whether it’s an intricately sculpted metallic cake or a straight-up vanilla beauty. From $8 to $15 per serving.

Michelle Doll Cakes

Before becoming a sugar artist at the French Culinary Institute, Doll worked as a graphic designer—evident in her signature draping and intricate detailing. Doll is especially renowned for her red-velvet concoction, crowned with vanilla buttercream and Heath-bar frosting. She has even proved her baking aplomb on television—she beat Bobby Flay in a wedding-cake throwdown on the Food Network. From $10 to $15 a serving.

Pieces of Cake

Cupcake Café alum Jennifer Chiang specializes in fusing Asian and Western styles. Her confections range from the immensely popular red-velvet cake with a coconut cream-cheese filling and icing, to a classic coconut-cream cake. She is also known for her decorative metallic painting on cakes and buttercream flowers. From $8 a serving.

Ron Ben-Israel Cakes

This French Culinary Institute master-chef instructor deals in cake couture. Bold, realistic sugar blossoms adorn most cakes, which have included replications of an Art Deco building, a Russian church, and the Taj Mahal. His cakes and icing burst with flavors like crushed vanilla bean and blood orange ($12 to $15 per serving). Everything from the floral design to the ribbon decoration is 100 percent natural and edible.

Ruth Drennan Cakes

For Ruth Drennan, every cake is a labor of love. Known for her extraordinary sugar flowers, Drennan can re-create a bridal bouquet on a cake—think 300 multicolored roses. She specializes in traditional flavors, but clients rave about her red-velvet cake with cream-cheese frosting. She suggests ordering at least six months in advance. From $10 per serving.

Sarabeth's Bakery

The uptown crowd’s favorite bakery and brunch spot also does gorgeous, traditional wedding cakes designed by Sarabeth Levine herself. Her elegant creations generally use fresh flowers and white buttercream. It’s best to order six weeks in advance. From $11.50 per slice.

Sarah Magid Custom Organic Cakes

After eight years living the jet-set life of a shoe and jewelry designer, Magid now stays closer to home for her small cake business. Loyal clients recognize her signature Goldies, an organic version of Twinkies dusted with edible gold powder. She frosts her wedding cakes with organic whipped buttercream icing. From $11 to $15 per slice.

Soutine Bakery

A tiny, understated bakery that receives some of the highest accolades in the city, Soutine turns out sophisticated, refined wedding cakes. Soutine can make any cake a picture, from fondant-frosted beauties with sugar-coated fruit to chocolate ganache with butterflies on top ($7.50 per serving with less expensive options available).

Sugar Couture

Film producer turned confectionery artist Penny CM Stankiewicz culls most of her inspiration from the city she calls home. Sugar Couture can conjure up a variety of creative confections and cakes (including groom’s cakes!), and, should you develop a sudden interest in the pastry arts, Stankiewicz teaches classes at Sarah Lawrence and the 92nd Street Y.

Sugarflowershop.com

Sugar flowers have never tasted this good, or looked so freakishly realistic. With a selection of blooms that rivals your local flower store, sugarflowershop.com is the ultimate resource for those who would prefer to do the cake (or cupcake) decorating themselves.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine

This cozy bakery is becoming a neighborhood staple for its cupcakes (the pistachio variety will make anyone a regular), which they’ll assemble into cute trees for a minimal charge. Conventional buttercream-frosted cakes are also available. Cupcakes are $18 per dozen; layer cakes start at $5 per serving.

Sweet Element

Sweet Element does not have a catalogue of cake styles to choose from. That’s because pastry chef and owner Jen Roberts prefers to create custom orders for her clients. She will work with you on the design, but the choice of flavor—she has a wide variety including a vegan chocolate and peanut-butter mousse filling—is up to you.

The Sweet Things Bake Shop

A side project of the Lower East Side Girls Club, the Sweet Things Bake Shop offers homemade custom cookies and cupcakes (from $3) for any occasion, including weddings. For couples with a social conscience, all proceeds from the shop support Girls Club programs that teach youth culinary arts and business skills, as well as provide much-needed services like education, job training, and health care for girls and their families living in lower Manhattan.

Sylvia Weinstock Cakes

Dubbed the “Queen of Cakes” by her peers, Weinstock creates elaborate, sugar-flower-studded cakes that many socialites wouldn’t do without. She uses buttercream instead of fondant, so air-conditioning is a must to ensure it won’t melt. Her cakes have been stars at the weddings of Donald Trump, Michael Douglas, and even members of the Saudi royal family. From $17 per serving.

William Greenberg Jr. Desserts

Since 1946, this bakery has been providing the Upper East Side with stunning, kosher white wedding cakes topped with homemade whipped cream, fresh flowers, and delicate icing designs. Greenberg is also up for the less traditional—he once made miniature individual wedding cakes for a client. From $8.50 per serving.

From the Winter 2009 New York Wedding Guide