If there were such a thing as a confectionary heirarchy, I’d have to place things like stale gumball-machine gumballs pretty close to the bottom. Candy dots on paper would have to be a close second. As you slide up the ladder, you pass necklaces you can eat, candy cigarettes (imagine that!?), oatmeal cookies without raisins, and twinkies.
It’s a pretty big middle ground after that (e.g. oreo cookies through godiva chocolates)
Then up near the top, you get into some pretty nice chocolatiers, a few great dessert/pastry chefs, and then the ranks get pretty rarefied.
As you approach the nadir (man, I’ve waited since 7th grade to use that word and, well, there you go), you get the real artistes. They’re so good that english words aren’t good enough – you need to use a french word (it must be a better word, it’s french, no?)
Ron Ben Israel is one of those precious few baker/artistes.
For the 100th birthday of the Plaza, Ron was commissioned to create a cake that was a 6 foot high exact replica of the Plaza. Probably one of the most exquisite confectionary projects ever.
I was honored to have been asked to help document this historic undertaking.
Now, right now you’re thinking, “Well, exact replica is a pretty relative term. The Plaza is a pretty special building. This cake is probably a big beige rectangle with green peaks on top”, right?
Guess again. In his studio, teams of artists labored on the details for weeks. Drawings to scale in the background.
Here’s the man himself, making it all happen.
The finished result was assembled over two days under a tent in front of the Plaza. Here’s the result:
Now would you have the heart to break off a piece and eat it?
That’s sugar!
And to give you a sense of the scale of this thing.
You judge how exact a replica it is….
The proud father….
The festivities were capped off with fireworks by Grucci – set off on the Plaza itself (the real one).
HB, Plaza. Glad you’ll be back in action soon. We’ve missed you.
And of course, if you need a truly exceptional cake, who you gonna call?
