This is the best thing we ate at Fête Rouge 2017

Dessert is sweet, but winning best dessert in the Fête Rouge culinary competition might be sweeter.

Allison Offner Bookman of Cupcake Allie placed first in dessert for her “Smoke and Mirrors” cake at the 11th annual food and wine tasting last Friday night. And once the 225 crew had sampled every dish in the room, we had to agree with the judges—this was the one we couldn’t stop talking about.

The chocolate espresso cake was filled with espresso ganache and garnished with Biscoff cookie crumble, smoked caramel sauce and liquid nitrogen Kahlua whipped cream. But the part that everyone wanted to snap photos of was the cake’s top: a dome-shaped, glossy, teal marble-like exterior that diners could crack open to dig into the cake inside.

The marble technique is often used on mirror-glazed cakes, and Bookman knew she wanted to make one for the event. She made it her own with the “smoke and mirrors” theme. She achieved a smoke-like effect with liquid nitrogen for the whipped cream and a smoky flavor with caramel sauce, complementing the coffee and espresso flavors of the cake. 

She made the mirror glaze from condensed milk with a bit of gelatin to give it what she refers to as “that sheen and that mirrored effect.” Drawing inspiration from Cupcake Allie’s signature teal blue, Bookman mixed blues and greens to create the glaze.

“We played a lot with the colors of the mirrored glaze. We knew the flavors would pair together well, so there wasn’t a need for trial and error with that. It was just getting the uniformity with the cake itself and then the technique of the glaze and getting the right colors,” she says. “We’ve been doing some molecular gastronomy techniques and wanted to play with some liquid nitrogen. So that’s when we knew we wanted to do a frozen whipped cream.”

She and two helpers baked more than 700 cakes for the event, beginning the day before. The process took six or seven hours.

While Bookman does not plan to serve the award-winning cake regularly at Cupcake Allie, she plans to make more mirror-glazed cakes for custom orders and events.

And the effort it took to make the dish for Fête Rouge was worth it. Cupcake Allie won bronze the first year it competed in the competition and silver the second year. Bookman had high expectations going into her third year of competition.

“We are known for cupcakes, but we do a lot more than cupcakes. We do desserts for several restaurants in town and really like to spread our wings,” she says. “So, to be known for more than just a cupcake and to really compete with the best in town—the best of the best and their desserts—was a really good feeling.”

Bookman collected her award onstage among some of Baton Rouge’s most talented chefs, including Best in Show winner Tracy Nguyen of Tsunami—who made a fresh and deliciously crispy yellowtail sashimi taco—and People’s Choice winner Collin Fontenot of Galatoire’s Bistro—who offered up pan-seared scallops. (See the full roster of Fête Rouge winners.)

The win for Bookman comes weeks after Louisiana Cookin’ magazine named her as this year’s pastry chef to watch. The Fête Rouge award was just the icing on the cake.

“It’s been a good month for us,” she says.