Cake-Maker Extraordinaire

From a bright and airy bakery in Orange County, CUI校友Lindsey Sinatra ' 07已成为加州首屈一指的蛋糕制造商之一. “我的蛋糕是异想天开的，有很多运动和小细节，”辛纳特拉说. “I’m known for the diversity and the fun nature of my cakes. 它们可以是任何东西，从漂亮的时尚蛋糕到有趣的雕刻长颈鹿.”

Sinatra has made spectacular cakes for movie premieres, celebrity birthday parties and many other special occasions. 她的作品曾在Food Network的“The Challenge”和WE的“Amazing Wedding Cakes”等电视节目中亮相.” “I’ve gotten into projects and not known what I was undertaking, but that’s part of the challenge,她说。. “You’re never doing the same thing. I’m in it for the fun of figuring out how we’re going to do it. Every week is a new challenge. I’m happy I discovered cakes because it’s such a social job.”

辛纳特拉在姐姐的推荐下发现了崔老师，当时她正在一所社区大学就读. “I toured the campus and was really drawn to it,她说。. She enrolled and “loved my experience at Concordia, especially campus life. I really enjoyed my friends and activities. I was a peer advising leader where you lead freshmen orientation. 我在艺术系、英语系和心理学系都有很好的教授. It was the perfect school for me.她对艺术充满热情，但不知道自己能否以此为职业. That led to a defining moment with CUI professor Niclas Krüger.

“kr格教授对我的艺术非常感兴趣，并非常鼓励我成为一名艺术家,她说。. “He helped me with my confidence. I always thought my art was cutesy and not serious, 但他说，它有奇思妙想，像儿童文学一样讲故事. He said I should think toward children’s literature and illustration. That gave my art more of a purpose. He helped me find who I am as an artist.辛纳特拉考虑过成为一名艺术老师或为儿童做艺术治疗，但她一直被自己的初恋所吸引:3d艺术. 大四的时候，她在美食频道上看到了一个名为“挑战”的节目，参赛者有8小时的时间来制作蛋糕. “I’d never seen cake art before and I flipped out,她说。. “我一直很喜欢烹饪，但我不想被困在厨房的热线电话里. This was the perfect combination of food and art.”

The next day Sinatra showed up at the winning bakery, which happened to be local, to find out how to break into the industry. 她带来了她在崔的一门课上的艺术作品集，并得到了现场实习的机会. “这真是太棒了，因为两天之内我就得到了我想要的东西，”她说. “It became the passion of my life.”

While finishing her degree at CUI she went to work at 4:30 a.m., then attended classes and went back to work from 2 to 7 p.m. Nights were spent working on her senior portfolio. 她说:“我当时要服用18个单元，每周工作5天，但我对生活充满了激情。. “Being busy gave me energy because I loved it.”

For five years she learned everything she could about baking, decorating cakes and running a small business. Then she launched out on her own and A Wish and a Whisk was born. “It was terrifying,她说。. “我在租来的商业厨房空间里做蛋糕，或者在面包店晚上关门的时候让我使用他们的厨房. My car was basically a running bakery.但她说，在康科迪亚学习雕塑的技能很好地转化为蛋糕. 她决定成为一名蛋糕专家，只接受预约制作蛋糕，不接受零售或上门服务. 她只专注于做蛋糕——没有饼干、布朗尼或甜点站.

几个月后，她就受雇为《博彩平台推荐》在洛杉矶的世界巡回演出做了一个6英尺长的巴黎歌剧院复制品蛋糕. 三周后，她受雇为《博彩平台推荐》在纽约的全球首演制作一个10英尺高的蛋糕. Both gigs came from television exposure. 一个愿望和一个搅拌器曾两次参加“挑战”的比赛，辛纳特拉曾带着她以前的面包店上过美食网.

Now she faced a tall order. 她说:“他们给了我一张哈利波特电影里蛋糕的照片，说‘复制这个’。. “I was completely unprepared for it. 我在忙乱. They gave me ten days to make it and get it to New York City.” She created a steel and plexiglas structure, built the cake around it, packed it in pieces on a truck in dry ice and sent it to New York. The cake took nine buckets of fondant (a kind of cake icing). “They loved it,她说。. “It was right in the center of the room.”

从那时起, A Wish and a Whisk has churned out specialty cakes, 每一个独特的, for everything from weddings to corporate events. “我很享受看到它聚在一起的兴奋感，以及你把它送给别人来庆祝他们生命中的重要时刻. It has such a purpose,” Sinatra says. “A cake becomes a showpiece for that wedding or event. People love taking pictures with it, talking about it and eating it. I hear from clients, ‘People talked about my cake more than my wedding.’”

A Wish and a Whisk moved into its own bakery in 2011, 一个满是窗户和天窗的商店，可以将自然光带入工作空间，这样辛纳屈和她的员工在工作时就能看到真正的颜色. The atmosphere is usually “six laughing girls,她说。. “I’m very picky,” says Sinatra. “我雇佣快乐、精神饱满、不争强好胜、团队合作的女孩.”

Before starting on a cake, she sits with a client for an interview, learning key details such as how a bride and groom met, or favorite hobbies. “My cakes tell a story,她说。. “我试图让客户的各个方面都参与进来，并尽可能多地代表他们. That ties back to the art I did at Concordia. 我会找出这个人的生活或这对夫妇的关系中什么是重要的，然后试着把他们故事中的小元素藏在蛋糕里.”

她去年做的一个婚礼蛋糕上隐藏了许多高雅的元素:一个带两个手提箱的地球仪, 高尔夫球杆里藏着插花和一个电影卷轴，象征着这对夫妇是在电影学院认识的. “It’s not in-your-face obvious,” Sinatra says. “它看起来像一个婚礼蛋糕，但当你走近时，你会看到这些东西.”

她的蛋糕是劳动密集型的，需要25到85个小时，成本高达1.6万美元. She sketches the cake in pencil, 用黑笔勾勒出草图的轮廓，然后用水彩和彩色铅笔完成. 好的元素, called “sugar details,都是用糖糊提前制作的，这种糖糊有培乐多的稠度，但干得很快，硬得像一块硬骨头. 蛋糕本身是由意大利梅伦格奶油和搅打的蛋清制成的, heated sugar and butter. 蛋糕被放入冰箱，每次取出一两个小时，以定型和覆盖细节. Unlike some decorative cakes, Sinatra’s actually taste good. 她说:“对我来说，如果你的蛋糕尝起来不好吃，我觉得做它没有意义。. “I take a lot of time and pride myself in my cakes tasting really good. They are all made from scratch with the highest quality ingredients. All my flavors are spins on classic comfort flavors.”

辛纳特拉受聘为NBC电视台在洛杉矶千禧比尔特莫尔酒店播出的黄金女郎贝蒂·怀特90岁生日制作300个迷你蛋糕. “I got called by General Mills with less than two weeks’ notice,她说。. “We had to match their very specific colors. 当时我只有两名员工，我们做了一条装配线，并努力完成它. Everyone I knew was in here the last days painting pearls and boxing cakes. It was a lot of fun.”

辛纳特拉说，她所做的正是她创办《亚洲体育博彩平台》时的目标:“我过着我想要的生活. I’m not looking to achieve some TV show. 我只是想拥有一家成功的面包店，在那里我可以制作我的蛋糕，所以我真的很开心.”

正如在 铜杂志2013年秋季