/ / / / /

Let Them Eat (Partially Fake) Cake! The Story Behind Those Nightclub Cakes

July 5, 2012 at 7:55 PM | by | Comments (0)

We've often drooled over the elaborate cakes that we've seen celebrities pretending to eat inside Las Vegas' nightclubs and a few weeks ago, we started to wonder--who is making these cakes?

We initially presumed that a hotel's pastry team might be tasked with the job but when we got in touch with a PR rep for Tao and Marquee, she immediately told us about Gimme Some Sugar, a bakery in Henderson that's been rolling out cakes by the dozen, literally, for nightclubs.

According to bakery co-owner Miranda Prince, Gimme Some Sugar has been crafting cakes for nightclubs, and the general Las Vegas area, for nearly three years. Their first nightclub client? Kid Rock for whom they created this Jim Beam cake when he celebrated his birthday at Tao. A photo of Kid with the cake eventually made its way into Rolling Stone. "We were pretty stoked about that," Prince said of the exposure.

While the sudden appearance of sweets shops like Sugar Factory and Serendipity 3 on The Strip may seem like a recent trend, the photo op cake has been around Vegas for a while. Marie's Gourmet Bakery has been baking celebrity cakes in Vegas as way back as 2006 and the popular Retro Bakery has built their sweet-looking and tasting cupcake tiers for celebrity events around town as well (Oh, hai there, Justin Bieber-inspired cupcakes!)

And, these photo op cakes aren't limited to nightclubs. Caked Las Vegas, which once appeared on TLC's "Fabulous Cakes" show, recently baked a replica of the T3 at McCarran Airport to celebrate the terminal's grand opening last month.

Still, the nightclubs and their celebrity hosts are getting the most attention for over-the-top cakes. You can hardly flip through a tabloid magazine or scroll down a celebrity gossip site without seeing some sugary masterpiece in the hands of a TV actor, pro athlete, or reality show character.

Gallery: Lick But Don't Eat: A Look at Nightclub Cakes

Since the Kid Rock Jim Beam cake, Gimme Some Sugar has been working with all the big nightclubs in town like Tao, Lavo, Marquee, Pure, Saville Row, Gallery and Chateau churning out between one and five custom cakes each weekend.

And, just as every celebrity has different demands when hosting a nightclub (everything from appearance fees to the types of drinks being served and the size of their entourage is negotiated), the cakes are custom created for the celebrity.

"We do quite a bit of research on each celebrity and hope we come up with something they love," Prince said of the cake design process. "Other times, though, we get input from the nightclubs or the PR reps. For instance, we made an owl cake for Mark Salling of Glee because he loves birds. That's something we obviously would not know so it's very cool when we get to make cakes personal."

Yet even something as innocent as cake has a dark side. We had heard rumors from our friends working at the hotels in town that the cakes presented in the nightclubs were fake. Prince admitted this is partly true. "Our tiered cakes do contain a portion of real cake, however. The styrofoam tiers allow the cake to be lighter which is an advantage for the girls to carry it through a packed nightclub. If a cake is shaped, though, it is always composed of real cake."

As for how much these cakes cost, Prince said that's up to the nightclub and how much they want to spend on the celebrity. Given that NBA Champion Lebron James is due to host at Tao this weekend and has notoriously dissed a specialty cake before, we hope that Tao has a big cake budget for him.

Meanwhile, if you want your own Gimme Some Sugar cake for a personal occasion when you're in town, you can order those from the storefront starting around $7 per serving. If you want a cake when you're partying in the club, check with the club's special events coordinator. For instance, Marquee includes personalized cakes as part of their Bachelorette party packages. Otherwise, you may just have to celebrate sans paparazzi and adoring fans at the Sugar Factory.

(All Photos courtesy of Tao and Lavo nightclubs)

Comments (0)

Post a Comment

Return to » Let Them Eat (Partially Fake) Cake! The Story Behind Those Nightclub Cakes

Join the conversation!

Not a member? .
Use of this Site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (effective 3/21/12) and Privacy Policy (effective 3/21/12). © Condé Nast. Your California Privacy Rights. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.
Ad Choices