Sylvia Weinstock, who was known for her 10-foot-tall wedding cakes and her hand-painted sugar flowers, died at her home in Manhattan. She died at the age of 91.
Her daughters said she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in the summer.
Mrs. Weinstock was known for her elaborate wedding cakes with flowers cascading down over multiple tiers of buttercream frosting. Bon Appétit called her the Leonardo da Vinci of wedding cakes.
She baked novelty cakes in the shape of beloved items for special occasions. She made another wedding cake four years later for the couple who were divorcing.
Her clients included Whitney Houston, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Robert De Niro, Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, and many more. Sylvia was the choice of the Clintons and the Trumps for major events, as she was widely known, and she was also the one who ordered a 13-layer confection for the Trumps.
Mrs. Weinstock started baking desserts in the early 1980s. At the time, wedding cakes were usually a tier or two with white frosting and decorated with fruit or flowers.
Mrs. Weinstock introduced a new level of extravagance. She took apart real flowers, looked at them for their shade and shape, and then created architectural masterpieces in the shape of rose- studded topiaries, baskets of speckled rubrum lilies or bouquets of pink, purple and crimson anemones. They rose 15 feet high.
She told InStyle that they don't count the flowers on a cake. We add and add until it pleases the eye. It could be hundreds or thousands. She said that one artist could spend 40 hours creating just 100 roses.
Ed Schoenfeld said that Mrs. Weinstock's floral decorations set a new standard in the business. She changed the way people thought about cakes.
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Mrs. Weinstock said that they never counted the flowers on a cake. We add and add until it pleases the eye.
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A restauranteur said that her floral decorations set a new standard. She changed the way people thought about cakes.
She developed recipes that would allow her confections to travel. She and her husband would often escort the cakes, buying an airplane seat for the precious cargo and assembling it on arrival. She made a cake for the Saudi royal family and had it delivered on a royal jet.
Her creations were not cheap. A five-tier cake with thousands of sugar flowers was commissioned by the bride for her wedding to Joe Manganiello. The cost is estimated to be $50,000.
Mr. Schoenfeld said that Mrs. Weinstock was a force of personality.
He said that she was a New York broad who let you know what she thought. She never hid her dislike of cupcakes or fondant. Ms. Isa said in an interview that her mother refused to bake a cake for a bride who wanted it to taste like a Twinkie.
Mrs. Weinstock was a student of psychology and married. She wanted to know what went wrong if they had been married before.
She claimed to have an ability to predict the success of a marriage after talking with the bride and groom. She once said, "I really want to tell the boy to run."
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Mrs. Weinstock has a photo of her favorite cakes.
Sylvia Silver was born in the Bronx in 1930 and grew up in Brooklyn with her parents, Samuel and Anna Silver. Sylvia lived above her own cake business because the family lived above the bakery.
When she was a teenager, she asked a group of young men if they would go swimming with her at the beach on the Fourth of July. Benjamin Weinstock was a student at Queens College.
They were married in 1949 and later moved to Massapequa, where she taught elementary school and he practiced law with their three daughters.
Mrs. Weinstock received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Hunter College in 1951 and a master's degree in education from Queens College in 1973.
The country house was built by the family in the early 1970s. Mrs. Weinstock started baking desserts while her husband and children were skiing. George Keller, the former pastry chef of La Caravelle, took her on as his apprentice after he ran a guesthouse nearby, and she got to know him.
William Greenberg, a friend, suggested that she learn to decorate wedding cakes with flowers. He started referring customers to her who needed wedding cakes he didn't make.
She was 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 She wanted to be near her doctors in Manhattan and her husband was tired of practicing law so they moved to the city. They founded Sylvia Weinstock Cakes together.
They demolished a building in TriBeCa that was not trendy and built a four-story townhouse with a commercial kitchen and office. They added another floor later. The basement had a walk-in refrigerator.
Mr. Weinstock was an engineer and devised numerous contraptions to facilitate his wife's work. He made plywood platforms for the cakes to separate the layers and converted a pottery wheel into a foot pedal so that she could apply icing in one smooth stroke. The delivery man wore a shirt that said "cake schlepper."
The company logo was imprinted at the bottom of each dessert because Mrs. Weinstock's signature oversized round eyeglasses made of horn kept them light.
At one point, she was able to debut her work at the Carlyle Hotel. She was booked at other hotels and caterers after the word spread that it was a smash.
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Mrs. Weinstock taught a cake decorating class at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York.
She retired to take care of her husband after he became ill. He died at 93.
Mrs. Weinstock is survived by her daughters, Amy Slavin and six children.
She lectured, taught and appeared as a guest judge on baking shows after retiring. She taught her flower-making technique to luxury brands around the world, most notably Ladurée US, the French bakery.
She still wore her apron for special events, including the October wedding of the daughter of Bill and Melinda French Gates, who she designed a six-tier cake with sprays of off-white and light pink sugar roses.
Mrs. Weinstock had a modest postwar wedding with 20 people and a small honey cake. She was often asked if she and her husband wanted to renew their vows and throw a lavish bash for themselves, with one of her cakes as the centerpiece.
She would say no. She did not need an audience. She would be embarrassed. She did not like sweets. What if she didn't have an elaborate wedding? She told The Miami Herald that she got away with the best guy in the world.
