If there were a wedding cake Olympics, Cynthia’s Cakes, tucked in the wilds of north Edinburg, could take home the gold medal in every event. The incredible, edible works of art created by Cynthia Ebrom have been featured on the Times Square jumbotron and in the current issue of The Knot, the Texas brides magazine. That publication noted that Cynthia is to wedding cakes what Troy Aikman was to football. Customers from Hong Kong, Sweden, New York City and Guadalajara have walked into Cynthia’s Cakes, by appointment. She’s also made cakes for three U.S. presidents.
“The beauty of this shop is that every cake is going to be different. I love a challenge,” said Ebrom, who established Cynthia’s Cakes in 1990.
Several years earlier as a single mom, she decided to bake cakes for extra income. Because she couldn’t afford to take a decorating class, she taught herself to decorate with a $5 kit. Ebrom told her first customers to buy her the cake pans, bring the ingredients, and she’d make them birthday cakes. The first wedding cake she made was her own in 1987, and soon after she went to Chicago and enrolled in the Wilton School of Cake Decorating.
“The more I would decorate, the more creative I would get. Now 30 years later, I’m still enjoying it,” Ebrom said.
The cakery she had built in 2001 looks like a house – on purpose – with a wide veranda and gingerbread details, of course.
“When you spend more time at your job than at home, why not make it homey? It makes it seem like I’m not really working.”
The ‘living room’ is a wonderland of wedding cake samples, ranging from vintage Victorian and art deco cakes to several stunners, such as the cake composed of blue and white Talavera tiles. Each large square is made of sugar, and the cake is graced with white peonies. This elegant cake launched a trend that’s spreading around the country, according to Ebrom. Also the host of the TLC show “Cake Boss’ spent an hour studying her vintage-decorated cake.
To read more of this story by Eileen Mattei, pick up a copy of the May edition of Valley Business Report, on news stands now, or visit the “Current & Past Issues” tab on this Web site.