Extreme baking at Partiz and Cakes

“If I can picture it in my head, I can re-create it in cake,” says Cassy Benoit, owner of newly established bakery Partiz and Cakes on Jones Creek Road. Benoit specializes in what she calls “extreme upright cakes”: the sort of elaborately sculpted fondant creations to which the Food Network devotes series like Ace of Cakes and Food Network Challenge. Her cakes are works of art, with flowers that look as though they were just plucked, fabric that seems like it should yield to the touch and flawlessly smooth, brightly colored surfaces. And yet, it’s all a sugary illusion. “Everything we put on the cake is sugar,” Benoit says. “It’s all edible, and it’s all made from scratch.”

Benoit hails from the Caribbean island of Dominica, where she attended culinary school and specialized in pastry making. She worked at beach restaurants on her home island, plying her trade as a pastry chef before she and her husband, Mike, emigrated to the U.S. in 2005. For a time, Benoit left behind pastries and became an event manager, planning wedding receptions and bridal showers; but her artistic talents quickly surfaced when she began trying her hand at making cakes for her brides-to-be. “At first it was just one or two,” she says. “Then it began to take over.” Soon, Benoit was spending more time in the kitchen than at the reception halls, and her clients were urging her to do cakes full-time.

She didn’t need much urging. “It sounds cliché, but owning my own bakery has always been a dream of mine,” Benoit says. Two months ago, she and her husband opened the doors to her dream, and business has slowly but steadily picked up. This week, for instance, Benoit is absorbed in making a three-foot-tall wedding cake that will be covered in hundreds of hand-sculpted sugar flowers, a project that she predicts will take her the full week to finish. Benoit works alone, although she credits her engineer husband with assisting her in finding ways to create some of the more elaborate cake structures she’s tackled. “He helps me overcome gravity,” she jokes.

In addition to the complicated pastries that are her passion, Benoit’s shop also offers simpler delights: carryout cupcakes, petit-fours and truffles, and two-layer sheet cakes, among other creations, all handmade by Benoit, who says she intends to put her personal stamp on all of her goods. “I just want Partiz to be known as a place where you can get really good, beautiful cakes,” she says.

Check out a photo gallery of some of Benoit’s creations by clicking here. And if you’re interested in checking out the shop for yourself, you can attend their Open House celebration on Sunday, Oct. 3rd, 2010. Visit Partiz and Cakes Facebook page for more information.