cakes

In 2011, the South Beach Wine and Food Festival’s 10th anniversary party, “Let Them Eat Cake,” was hosted by Emeril Lagasse and Martha Stewart. More than 800 guests took elevators to the top floor of event hotspot 1111 Lincoln Road to sip champagne and cocktails and sample confections from a baker’s dozen of pastry chefs alongside the festival’s biggest stars. Top pastry chefs from around the country provided cakes honoring the festival's 10th anniversary.

When Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular celebrated its 2,000th performance in February, organizers looked to Las Vegas's Freed's Bakery to create a giant cake in the well-known shape of the phantom's white mask.

In March, guests of all ages came out for the screening of Mirror Mirror followed by a family-friendly party at the Hollywood Roosevelt. The event acknowledged star Lily Collins's birthday with a giant, apple-shaped cake by A Wish and a Whisk.

The Washington D.C. chapter of Les Dames D’Escoffier International and Tysons Galleria hosted the first annual “Let Them Eat Cake” competition in March, challenging three local pastry chefs to create fashion-inspired wedding cakes. Laurie Alleman Weber, chef and owner of the Swiss Bakery, won the judges' prize and the popular vote for her "High Volume"-themed cake.

In March, Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes and TLC's Ace of Cakes created a Washington memorials caked decorated with cherry blossoms specifically for the Pink Tie Party, an event that kicked off the capital's centennial celebration of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

The James Beard Awards returned to Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in May to celebrate the latest crop of culinary award winners, as well as the James Beard Foundation’s silver anniversary. In honor of the anniversary, Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes in Baltimore created a cake in the shape of the James Beard House in New York. After being presented during the ceremony, it was later served to guests in the Urban Spoon lounge on the balcony.

In the summer, the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Gold Coast opening in Chicago drew 500 guests, and featured a 3,000-pound cake created by Cake Boss star and New Jersey baker Buddy Valastro. With a "Chicago's Best" theme, Valastro's enormous dessert had replicas of city landmarks, a mini deep-dish pizza, and the Rolls-Royce hood ornament: a winged figure known as the Spirit of Ecstasy. Forklift operators helped unload the cake from its delivery truck, and the setup took 30 minutes.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary last year, designer discount retailer Daffy's hosted a "cakewalk" in Greeley Square Park, where models showed off 23 fall looks, walking around—and on top of—a four-tiered, 10-foot birthday cake created by Vincent Buzzetta of WE TV's Staten Island Cakes.

Chicago officially became a city in 1837, which means a 175th birthday party was in order earlier this year. Held appropriately at the Chicago History Museum, the afternoon affair had family-friendly educational activities and a four-tier, 80-pound birthday cake created by Vinny Garcia of Bleeding Heart Bakery. Decorated with symbols of the city's various neighborhoods—a sinuous, scaly dragon represented Chinatown, for example—the organic vanilla bean dessert was topped with vanilla bean frosting and Italian butter cream. Garcia used gum paste to add the logo, stars, and rings of the Chicago flag to the towering confection, which was several days in the making.

On September 10, Chicago lifestyle publication Glossed & Founded hosted a one-year anniversary event for Atelier Azza. Held at the Public Hotel, the event had a glitzy, birthday party vibe, complete with a towering cake from Sugar Hills Bakery. The cake’s frosting had the silky look of fabrics from the Atelier Azza collection, while jewels and other embellishments evoked the line’s gilded, ornate look.

Bobble, the brand of water bottles with built-in, replaceable carbon filters, exhibited at the Home and Housewares Show at Chicago's McCormick Place in March. Company co-founders Richard and Stephanie Smiedt also hosted an after-hours bash at the Shedd Aquarium during the show to engage with buyers. The event doubled as a second birthday bash for the product, and a Bobble-shaped birthday cake from Amy Beck Cake Design stood on display all evening.

The national tour of The Phantom of the Opera closed in Los Angeles in 2010, and after the final curtain call at the Pantages Theatre, guests moved to the W Hollywood for a party that borrowed its look and feel from the show's Palais Garnier opera house setting. A Wish and a Whisk created a cake that replicated the Parisian structure.

The 2010 World Festival in Chicago—a fund-raiser for chef Art Smith's Common Threads charity— doubled as a 50th birthday celebration for Smith. In honor of the celebrity chef's special day, a V.I.P. area dubbed "Art's Birthday Lounge" housed tasting stations devoted to birthday cake. Sugar flowers and grass decorated a confection from Sarah's Pastries & Candies.

To mark the 25th anniversary of Weddingbells in 2010, the magazine hosted a cocktail reception for 400 guests at the Windsor Arms Hotel and called on renowned cake designer Bonnie Gordon of the Bonnie Gordon School to create the decor—a display of 25 elaborate cakes. Gordon called on students to create the lavish confections.