Sep 30, 2024 Food
No dessert holds as much symbolic potential as cake. Cake is a party, all on its own. Cake is made to decorate the table and then to share, slices scaled so there’s enough for everyone. Cake turns an occasion into a celebration.
In Tāmaki Makaurau, there’s a cake for every occasion, aesthetic, dietary requirement. No longer do the coeliacs have to suffer the indignity of another orange almond loaf, or the vegans another slice of that same chocolate cake that “happens to be vegan”. Bakers across the city are assembling triumphant layers for eaters of all needs and creeds, so much so that I had to put restraints in place to make this list manageable. I have prioritised independently owned shops, especially those with a distinct remit or offering bespoke services. And while I love a cheese or ice cream cake and firmly believe that you can stick candles in any pastry you like — pie, croissant, box of doughnuts, you name it — here I have stuck to purveyors of cakes in the more traditional sense (chiffon, sponge, genoise and so on) paired with occasions I might bring them to.
YOUR BIRTHDAY:
Burnt Butter Diner (aka Sweet Cheeks)
Claudia Long makes cake you want to wake up to the next morning. Your birthday is over, you’re old and dusty, but there’s a quarter of a birthday cake in the fridge with your name on it (maybe even literally). Life doesn’t seem so bad when you’re eating burnt butter cake with a splash of Vietnamese coffee, filled with crème fraîche and dulce de leche and thickly plastered with feather-light Swiss meringue buttercream. If that sounds like a lot, it’s because it is, but somehow, Long’s combinations always work. From the Burnt Butter website, you can order such gems as the Tiny Tina Cake — “4 inches of adorable” — or the OG Birthday Cake — a slab of double chocolate or buttermilk berry cake covered in torched meringue and rainbow sprinkles. Long also does a roaring trade in custom cakes, including ones decorated with what is becoming her signature look: a spiral of rainbow buttercream that perfectly mimics the hues of a rainbow Paddle Pop.
From $50 for a Tiny Tina to $120 for a big OG Birthday
A BIG BIRTHDAY:
@tiniestyos.table
There are birthdays and then there are birthdays, ones with a 0 in them. Not one but two of my besties celebrated such birthdays this year, and both chose Ashleigh Payne to make their cakes. One of these was a rectangle of black sesame chiffon sandwiched with cream cheese mousse and kaya, frosted with black-sesame-cream-cheese-buttercream wiggles, decorated with puddles of kaya and ripe cherries; the other a Black Forest slab, an olive oil devil’s food cake filled with mascarpone and cherry orange compôte, iced with chocolate cream cheese buttercream and covered in stencilled silver stars. Payne runs a custom service, with the cake, filling and icing adjusted to your desires and decoration requests if they’re confident they can achieve them — something that seems likely, given their experience as a cake decorator at The Caker’s now-closed Karangahape flagship.
From $45 for 4–6 servings to $200 for a cake that will feed 20–24 hungry guests
A BIG MATCH:
Jake the Chef
What do you do when your social sports team wins its league? Or more importantly, what do you do when it doesn’t? You could have beer, sure. Or you could have cake. This seems like the perfect occasion for a slab cake: a huge, satisfying rectangle easily divvied into however many portions are needed, depending on how many revellers/consolers show up. Luckily for you, Nana Jacobson aka Jake the Chef can make any of her divine cakes at this scale, ensuring every member of the team will get their own slice of, say, spiced apple cake filled with whipped custard, salty caramel and oat pecan crumble, slathered in brown butter cream cheese. If you’re more into mind games than ball games, I’ve been told that Jacobson’s fluffy black sesame, banana and mascarpone cake could be perfect to serve to your enemy. “It would show you’re in control. It’s so delicious, so sophisticated, but there’s an edge.”
From $80 for a medium size to $200 for a massive slab
A CHILD’S PARTY:
Neat Cakes
If your child wants a dinosaur cake, a Frozen cake or a gorgeously piped vintage-look cake, go see Jack Orsbourn at their cake studio on Dominion Road. If you’re catering to a group of kids with a bunch of different allergies and dietary requirements — something increasingly common — go see Jack. If you just want a really yummy cake, go see Jack. For all the hubbub around plant-based eating, there are still relatively few places offering plant-based cakes, especially in this many flavours: s’mores, lemon passionfruit, caramelised cornflakes, carrot cake, to name a few. You’d never guess the Neat Cakes kitchen is entirely free from animal products, including eggs, dairy and gelatine, and you certainly wouldn’t know from tasting the cakes, which are perfectly moist and not too sweet, topped with soft, melty buttercream.
From $50 for a 4 inch to $170+ for an extra large, serving up to 30 people
AN ENGAGEMENT:
Mor Bakery
Pastry-heads will know Mor Bakery for its dreamy viennoiserie — recent offerings include flaky pastry filled with vanilla bean rice pudding and oatmeal frangipane, topped with a slow-poached quince — but did you know they will make you a cake? And not just any cake, a gorgeous poem of a cake — perhaps a cardamom number with raspberries and rosewater, or a citrus cake with lemon myrtle and mascarpone, either of which can be made in the whimsical dome shape currently favoured by viral cake makers such as Dream Cake Test Kitchen, Bayou Saint Cake and Yip Studio. These are cakes that double as sculptures, big-hearted, hopeful cakes to celebrate the sweet headiness of falling in love and promising to stay there forever.
$90 for a small dome; $180+ for a cake serving 20–24 guests
QUITTING YOUR JOB:
Memo Cakery
Quitting your toxic job is brave and iconic, but also tough and terrifying — especially in this economy! You deserve to be celebrated and soothed simultaneously. You deserve a cake from Memo, one that is soft and pudding-like, the ratio of mousse and crème to chiffon probably sitting somewhere around 80:20. These are unctuous, spoonable desserts that still fill the ceremonial and decorative function of a cake, perfect for anyone who would rather have, say, a chocolate mousse or tiramisu. Having sampled most of Memo’s offerings, I can say my favourites from the core range are the Ube Creamcheese (earthy, slightly tangy) and the Dark Chocolate Almond (essentially a chocolate mousse with little clouds of cocoa cake throughout; chocolatey without being too rich). If you are a matcha lover, however, and can get your hands on the Matcha Yuzu seasonal special, do — the bright bitterness of the yuzu paired with smooth grassy matcha is transcendent.
$65 for a mini; $85 for a medium; $99 for a large (serving 10+)
A DIVORCE OR BREAK UP:
Butter Butter
If there was ever a time for a sexy cake, this is it, and Petra Galler’s cakes are that. There will be no tissues and mugs of wine here, only declarations of confidence and decadence. Cakes dripping with honey, oozing cream; cakes that state firmly, My life is sweeter without you. Running on a by-request basis, Galler works with clients to make all their cake dreams come true. And while she can do the usual classics (her buttermilk chocolate cake is the best I’ve tried), it’s her own classics, many inspired by her Jewish heritage, that customers will ask for again and again — gems such as her silky Tiramisu Crepe Cake or a gently spiced medovik (Russian honey cake). If you’d prefer to flex your own skills, Galler’s book — also called Butter, Butter — includes many of her signature, Middle-Eastern-influenced recipes.
POA, starting at $160 for a single layer
TO CHEER UP A FRIEND:
Sunday the Bakery
In gloomy times, flowers are traditional, but how about a cake that looks like a flower? Made in her home kitchen in Māngere, Emily Francis’s cakes are tight crumbed and richly flavoured, topped with silky ganache piped with her signature scalloped edges. These are frothy, joyful cakes that come in light-hearted flavours like Creaming Soda, Citrus and Guava, or Banana and Condensed Milk, which has generous chunks of chocolate folded into the batter. Also an ex-Caker baker, Francis offers excellent vegan options — her Hazelnut and Dark Chocolate cake is particularly good — as well as a low-sugar option which is something I haven’t seen advertised anywhere else.
$60 for a small cake; $150 for a tiered cake (feeds 12–16)
A PRESENT TO YOURSELF:
Folds Patisserie
“I’m going to let you in on a little secret: Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it, don’t wait for it, just let it happen.” So said Twin Peaks’ Agent Cooper, and what better present could you give yourself than cake? While the cabinet at Folds Patisserie is always filled with individual-sized treats — think Milo Swiss rolls, pandan lamingtons, slices of taro and pistachio cheesecake — they also make stunning celebration cakes in various Asian-inspired flavours, such as ondeh ondeh, durian, teh tarik and — a vastly underrated combination, in my opinion — seasonal fruit with fresh cream.
From $45 for a 4 inch up to $230 for a whopping 16 by 12 inch
