ated with buttercream frosting or fondant, a thinly rolled sugar dough. Sometimes those layers are formed into more traditional, cir- cular cake shapes, then painted or adorned. Or they may be sculpted into realistic ren- derings. The fi re-breathing dragon is one example, but pastry chefs can also re-create motorcycles, pieces of fruit, helmets, bags of chips, plants, a camera or beloved pets. Rasul once made a reproduction of the Stanley Cup. The Gateaux Instagram page shows cakes featuring a bass jumping from a pond, a sugary stack of books and a jack-o-lantern. Rasul started working behind the coun- ter in bakeries in southern New Jersey as a teenager in the 2000s. She looked forward to moments when someone would mess up an Cakes can showcase milestones like birthdays, graduations and weddings. They commemorate those events in a tangibly beautiful and delicious way, and then they’re gone — as ephemeral as the memories of the moments themselves. The way cakes become incorporated into the celebration is why Ayala says she doesn’t mind seeing her artwork get cut up and eaten. “For somebody to trust us with a milestone in their life, it’s never bothered me, ever,” she says. But that’s also why it’s so important to try to understand the personalities of the customer and what they’re looking for in their cakes. Ayala thinks it’s somewhat of a psychological connection, where she gleans the general concept and then digs deeper to Azucar Bakery is ready for Valentine’s Day. order, because it gave her an opportunity to go into the kitchen to see what they were doing, and she was always drawn to the design. But it was only after working at many more bakeries, attending Johnson & Wales University for a few years and moving to Colorado that a hap- penstance encounter with the then-owner of Gateaux landed her a job at the bakery. Ten years later, she became the owner. “I could sit there for hours and just pipe,” she laughs, adding that while the decorating is her favorite part of the process, there’s other hard work that goes into making the cakes and running a bakery. It’s a job that can be glamorized on televison, but the real work is time-consuming and demands long hours, she says — not just in the kitchen, but also standing on ladders to set up multi-tiered cakes at weddings and driving delicate des- serts through Colorado’s mountain passes. James Williams, the new owner of Azucar Bakery, at 1886 South Broadway, agrees. “Pastry is its own animal,” he says. “It’s tedious, I’m not going to lie.” Williams has more than thirty years of experience in kitch- ens, and he bought Azucar last September to fulfi ll a longtime dream of owning a bakery. He’s found that pride and passion compose much of the grit that pulls pastry chefs through the long hours and fast pace — that, and the ability to create for someone else. “There’s really nothing more fulfi lling than to know I’m being asked to be part of someone’s special occasion,” he says. Williams’s personal memories of sweet cel- ebrations extend back to his childhood in Arkansas, when cakes and pies were always a central part of any gathering. extract depth and fi nd a creative spin. At Gateaux, Rasul sees her role as visual- izing a part of a customer’s life story. “I like to know a lot about the person. What kind of ice cream do they eat? Everything down to their hobbies or their age,” she explains. If a family comes in and asks for a cake in the shape of a racing car in honor of someone’s birthday, Rasul wants to know why. “Maybe they were a racer themselves,” she suggests. “Whenever they think of him, they still smell the burning rubber of the tires.” Translating the images and stories of customers into dessert often requires a team effort; the bakery counters can serve as workshop space for strategic planning and creative expansion. “There hasn’t been any- thing we haven’t been able to do, [which] is a testament to the people I have working with me,” Williams says. “Honestly, it’s sugar, and we can fi gure it out,” Ayala adds. “My team, they’re so cool, and we all work together sometimes to fi gure it out.” In many ways, Rasul believes that pastries are not just a collaborative effort by her staff, but also an accumulation of a long history of chefs and bakers innovating with sugar and fl our. “We’re very much building on a tem- plate,” she says. “Pastry has always been looked on as a canvas — just the infi nite possibility.” Mermaids Bakery, Gateaux and Azucar each serve a wide variety of pastries in ad- dition to their specialty cakes, and they’ve created a unique lineup of seasonal varieties for Valentine’s Day. Go to their websites to learn more about their offerings. — CLAIRE DUNCOMBE OPEN HOURS THURSDAY-SUNDAY 9AM-6PM. CLOSED WEDNESDAY MONDAY-TUESDAY 9AM-6PM, PARK HILL SUPERMARKET High Quality! Huge Variety! Wholesale Prices! Fresh fruit, vegetables, meat & seafood 3770 E 40TH AVE. DENVER, CO 80205 Tel: 303-823-3088 FACE MASKS AND HAND SANITIZER NOW AVAILABLE! 13 westword.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | WESTWORD FEBRUARY 11-17, 2021 CLAIRE DUNCOMBE
