Toronto bakery makes $900 cupcake

Aug. 11, 2014, Toronto – A bakery has created a custom cupcake that features tiny Champagne bubbles, fondant
decorations painted with edible gold, Kona coffee from Hawaii and
21-year-old Courvoisier, reports The Canadian Press.

The gourmet cupcake craze has been declared dead by more than one
trend-watcher, but it's still got sweet appeal for a Toronto man who
spent $900 on an elaborate confection for his wife's 40th birthday.

Lisa
Sanguedolce, owner of custom sweetmaker Le Dolci, says she was asked to
make the elaborate creation featuring some of the woman's favourite
ingredients, and ended up including tiny Champagne bubbles, fondant
decorations painted with edible gold, Kona coffee from Hawaii and
21-year-old Courvoisier.

Pastry chef Devonne Sitzer, who's had
stints at Toronto's Distillery District and the tony Langdon Hall in
Cambridge, Ont., dreamed up the cupcake along with designer Annie Sung
Lee.

"It was a lot of labour, going back and forth with him,
showing him sketches and sourcing everything," Sanguedolce said Friday.
"Our chef is amazing. She came up with it all. I was, like, this is
beautiful."

Tiny Champagne bubbles sprinkled over the cake were
created using a molecular gastronomy technique — "they explode in your
mouth," Sanguedolce said — and "diamonds" carved out of sugar were
placed around the edge of the chocolate cupcake, which was made with
organic sugar, flour and honey with a pinch of salt from France. The
cupcake was hollowed out slightly in the centre and filled with a
vanilla bean pastry cream and topped with mocha icing.

Delicate
fondant flowers were etched in edible gold, stylized gold strips
crisscrossed the sides of the cupcake and a fondant branch and leaves
were painted with edible gold. Kona is one of the most expensive coffees
in the world and the pricey chocolate came from Italy.

"The
Courvoisier was more to his liking," Sanguedolce said with a laugh. The
cognac was drizzled on top and poured into a small tube inserted into
the cupcake.

For quality control, they tasted as they went along, and Sanguedolce pronounced the chocolate, vanilla and coffee mix delicious.

The elements took a few days to prepare and assembly took a day. The lavish cupcake was delivered last Friday.

"The
customer was super happy. We used all the ingredients that his wife
loved and some things that he loved. It turned out to be a really fun
project."

This is the first costly cupcake Sanguedolce has
supplied, though she's produced numerous cakes that cost upwards of
$1,000, such as replicas of a celebrant's grand piano for a 65th
birthday, a Porsche for a son's wedding and a Corvette for a husband's
40th birthday. The time-consuming task of recreating each of them was
done from photos supplied by the customers.

Of the luxury market, Sanguedolce said, "It's a different world, not my world, but I'm happy to oblige."