 Brandon Kop, a pastry chef and wedding cake decorator at Stick Boy Bread Company, works carefully on a cake. Photo by Aubryn Gates |
by JACQUELINE SCOTT
Intern Lifestyles Reporter
Five years ago this May, Stick Boy Bread Company Head Pastry Chef Brandon Kop created his first wedding cake for an employee.
Kop began working at Stick Boy when it opened in 2001, making breakfast pastries and breads.
A year later, co-owner Carson J. Coatney decided to expand the menu.
What began as Coatney’s suggestion to expand the menu to include wedding cakes quickly turned into what Kop calls a “wedding destination place” in Boone.
“I’ve never done
anything like that before,” Kop said. “Carson and I realized what
talent I had for it. I just had a knack for it and it took off from
there.”
Aside
from creating cake masterpieces with his assistant Charlotte Beckner,
Kop also manages the production staff and tends to other projects.
Some weekends, there are 10 to 11 cakes completed for pick-up.
Kop describes the first five-tier cake he made as “scary.”
“Back in
the day, I didn’t set it up all here and drive it out,” he said. “I
would take individual pieces and stack it [on location], which is not
the right way to do it now.”
Kop’s
cakes are made of buttercream and Swiss fondant. Beneath the thin
fondant layer is a layer of buttercream for those who find the fondant
“too sweet.”
In 2006,
he went to the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone’s school for
fondant, where he attended a one-week class from world-renowned wedding
cake maker Condra Easley.
“I get excited to work with fondant because it’s usually new things I get to do,” he said.
When it comes to taste and price, customers choose buttercream.
When it comes to appearance, they choose fondant.
“My
buttercream work is so smooth and you don’t usually see that a whole
lot—so people think, ‘If I can have that smooth of a cake with
buttercream and pay less, I might as well not even go with the
fondant,’” Kop said.
A
traditional wedding cake consists of five tiers, however, Kop is
willing to add on a fondant-covered Styrofoam sixth tier to cut the
price.
“Especially now with the economy, if couples want to add more [tiers] they opt for a sheet cake,” he said.
If something cannot be done, Kop communicates this to his customer.
“I know
my limits,” he said. “For the most part, I want to give them what they
want 100 percent. If they give me a picture of what they want, I want
the cake to turn out exactly as they’d imagined.”
While satisfying a sweet tooth, Kop’s cakes also provide memories.
“I want
the bride and the groom and the family members to remember the cake. I
don’t want it to be forgettable,” he said. “I’d like to think it’s
because I was easy to work with and my cake was memorable, both with
tastes and looks, and it just completed the wedding.”
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