No doubt our fascination with patisserie, cakes and all things sweet has continued to grow over the years, with bright and colourful treats filling our favourite pastry stores and bakery windows, and celebrity cake makers amazing us with their creations.
Benny Rivera, the Owner of City Cakes in New York, is undoubtedly one of the talented cake artists behind this trend and is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Benny creates products that at first glance are so life-like, they look too good to eat.
It seems hard to believe that Benny’s passion for creating exquisite cakes started out as a hobby in his hometown of Puerto Rico, when he was a young teenager. This passion took somewhat of a backseat however, when he decided to relocate to New York City in 1996, placing his focus on foreign market financial analysis.
It wasn’t long after his move to the big apple that Benny realised that financial analysis was not where his heart truly lay, and that he was craving the creativeness of cake decorating. It was then that Benny began taking culinary courses to learn the latest techniques in creating elaborate, sophisticated and unique designs.
Fast-forward to 2018 and Benny is now the extremely successful Owner of City Cakes in New York, which has taken the form of a high-end, custom cake design studio and bakery in the heart of Manhattan. Here, Benny specialises in three dimensional sculpted cakes including life-like pumpkins, chocolates, sugar paste flowers, butter cream, royal icing and creative fondant.
Along with running and successful business, Benny is a regular on TV screens and in magazines across America – and has fast become one of the most sought after cakes artists around the world. Called upon by some of the most popular celebrities in the world, Benny has been asked to create cakes for Jennifer Lopez, Bethany Frankel, Fergie, Kevin Bacon, James Franco and Mike Myers. (He admits that his real dream however, is to one day create cake designs for Madonna and Ellen DeGeneres.)
Benny was also recently named Cake Artist of the Year by the New York Cake Show and the American Cake Decorator Magazine and has continued to remain a mentor for those that work alongside him at City Cakes.
Australia will get the chance to see Benny up close and personal as he joins star-studded line up of celebrity chefs, chocolatiers, and cake artists for the return of the Cake Bake and Sweets Show in Sydney and Melbourne this November. Be sure to purchase your tickets to Benny’s workshop, which are limited in number and offer a full day with this international superstar, as he teaches you how to create his self-made and utterly adorable 3D cake, Emotional Eddie – http://www.cakebakeandsweets.com/sydney/timetable/self-made-emotional-eddie/