Our Props Take The Cake!

29 Jan

Two cakes sit on a counter, one withed flower icing and the other a chocolate cake. A bag of flour is in the background.

The Cake, a fresh and delicious play by Bekah Brunstetter, is now playing at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston through February 9th. Traditional Southern baker Della must confront her own strongly-held beliefs when asked to bake a wedding cake for her deceased best friend’s daughter Jen and her future wife, Macy. Humor and empathy are the icing on top of this heartfelt comedy.

A pink cake with small flowers piped along the top. In the background is a carrot cake sitting atop a cake stand.

What would The Cake be without the titular treat? Props Artisan Lauren Corcuera designed and created the scrumptious-looking cakes for the play’s run, as well as other pastries that appear onstage. “I made twelve fake cakes including the one Della decorates at the top of the show, the red velvet she builds, and the ‘lumpy’ gluten/dairy/sugar-free monstrosity. I also made about 30 cupcakes, 15 chocolate drizzled buns, and about 25 madeleine cookies. That’s not even counting the real baked goods!” says Lauren.

A white cake with pink polka dot icing sits on a cake stand. In the background is a chocolate cake. In the foreground are small jars of sprinkles.

These prop cakes took much longer to create than the edible kind—a lot of them were made over the course of multiple weeks. Lauren used a mixture of lightweight spackle, white glue, and acrylic paint to frost and create piping details on the cakes.

One of Lauren’s favorite cakes to make was the Noah’s Ark cake. With extraordinary detail placed on the hand-crafted giraffes, elephants, and other animals, the cake is a centerpiece on Della’s pastry display. Lauren told us that “the Noah’s Ark cake definitely took the longest to make. I could estimate around 6-8 hours between frosting (and re-frosting) the cake parts and sculpting, painting, and placing the animals. It went through a few iterations, but it was a very fun project.”

A Noah's Ark cake depicts a boat full of pairs of animals, including giraffes, elephants, and monkeys. In the background is a carrot cake. — The Noah’s Ark cake

When reflecting on the cake creation process, Lauren says “people have been asking if I’ve decorated cakes before or if I watched a lot of tutorials, but I really just picked up some piping tips and went for it. Looking at a few style reference images director Courtney O’Connor provided, then running from there and experimenting was incredibly freeing, fun, and a little nerve-wracking. I wasn’t sure how they’d be received before bringing them in to rehearsal, but they’ve been a big hit and all of the work on them has truly paid off!”

See these extravagant cakes and beautiful pastries in Lyric Stage’s production of The Cake, running through February 9.

Our Props Take The Cake!