RecCreate Collective

Cake Club Is a Must-Try Brooklyn Class for Baking Hobbyists | Eater NY

"When baker Jamie Rothenberg, also known as @foodjars, tells the room that there's salted chocolate ganache for them to use, the group of over 30 cake decorators erupts in excitement. Will they fill their heart-shaped olive oil layer cakes with strawberry jam, dulce de leche, ganache, or a combination? Everyone seems eager to get started — like an adult version of a playdate centered around one of those Easy-Bake Oven toys. This is the often sold-out Cake Club, an event series hosted a few times a month at an art studio hidden in an unassuming industrial building near the Brooklyn Navy Yard: buzz in, take the service elevator up and follow the hallways of nondescript doors to find the entrance; inside, it's a warm space, walls lined with tea cups and art supplies and a shelf stacked with old magazines. On this day attendees have clustered around four tables; the instructor has baked layers that participants put together with dulce de leche or jam, and piping bags have already been filled with brown butter cream cheese frosting. They’re laid out in addition to bottles of honey and vanilla milk soak (used to add moisture and flavor to layer cakes), bowls of Instagram-famous Oishii strawberries, and locally sourced edible flowers, leaving attendees to decide what look they're going for. Cake Club is not a baking class, nor is it intended to be the most intensive cake-decorating class either — its focus is more on offering creative and social time, with the addition of cake. A ticket generally runs around $95, which is comparable to a mini cake from some of the teachers’ own bakeries, and allows participants to learn how to decorate cakes that they can take home; it also includes a slice of the cakes that the instructor has brought for snacking. The instructors rotate, usually between different microbakers who sell via IG rather than a storefront: recent events have featured Alli Gelles of @cakes4sport, Morgan Knight of @saintstreetcakes, and Lauren Klas of @atinykitchen. Each event ends with a social hour for cake and tea. "It's very much focused on having fun and being playful and trying new things," says owner Liz Chick, and she adds, "We do all the grunt work for you." Chick, whose creative practice centers around natural dye for clothing, started the studio in 2023 after renting the space and realizing she liked hosting "strangers from the internet for collage mornings and making coffee and coffee cake," she says. Most programming at the space requires a ticket and does not center around food, but Cake Club is "definitely the most in-demand," Chick says; it almost always sells out — once as quickly as seven minutes. The rising cost of eggs comes up at least twice during an afternoon. Some attendees are quiet as they concentrate on getting their frosting perfectly smooth; others are more engrossed in chatter. At one point Chick rings a cowbell and offers everyone a prompt: "What's your sweetest cake memory?" Often people attend alone to meet new people over a shared activity — "This was really convenient because you can just think about making it pretty," says attendee Sawu Johnston — while others come with friends to celebrate birthdays or to shake up usual hangouts. "The idea that I can come here and the cake's already made, the supplies are already out — it takes down a barrier," says attendee Caroline Bohra. Despite starting with the same materials, finished cakes range from classic Lambeth-inspired piping to artsy squiggles; attendees take selfies before boxing their creations and exchange plenty of compliments, and one person even mentions bringing their cake to a Super Bowl gathering not to watch the game but to enjoy food with friends." - Bettina Makalintal