If you’re like me and can’t stop watching those Food Network cake shows to vicariously live out your dessert dreams, Ron Ben Israel Cakes will certainly blow your mind.
Ron Ben-Israel is a well-known wedding cake master who specializes in beautiful sugar flowers – you can barely tell them apart from real flowers.
He frequently judges or appears on Food Network shows like Sweet Genius, Cake Wars, Chopped, Guy’s Grocery Games, and Worst Cooks in America.
Any cake you’ve ever dreamed of is within reach, so if you happen to have the extra money to splurge for your wedding, you should look into getting one of these Ron Ben Israel cakes.
You won’t be disappointed – these cakes are so pretty you could cry.
History of Ron Ben Israel Cakes
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Ron Ben-Israel used to love watching his mom bake, and from there he fell into his own pastry genius as his life went on.
After his military service in the Israeli army, originally going to fine art school for set design, and then years of professional ballet, Ron Ben-Israel went to France to apprentice as a chef in Cannes, Beaujolais, and Lyons. He then opened his famous New York cake studio Ron Ben Israel Cakes in 1999.
His cakes only gained popularity from there, and are now consistently featured in national magazines, books, and media such as Martha Stewart Weddings, Brides Magazine, New York Magazine, and Vera Wang’s Weddings. Curtains Up!
He sees each cake as a performance and has a true passion for creating edible masterpieces. This makes his creations not only a feast for the eyes but a delight to the taste buds.
What Makes Ron Ben Israel Cakes Special?
They’re custom-made by Ron Ben-Israel and his staff, genius cake-makers and decorators who have a history of producing phenomenal work.
Their focus is on wedding cakes, and other large-serving special occasion cakes (they’ll also do birthday cakes and cakes for large celebrations in general). They don’t offer smaller treats like cupcakes and cookies.
All Ron Ben Israel cakes are custom made so there’s no catalog, necessarily. However, you can find examples of their previous cakes under Collections on their website or on their Facebook page. They’ll blow you away.
Consultations and Tastings
You can schedule a tasting or consultation with Ron Ben Israel Cakes anytime from Monday through Friday during normal business hours 9am to 4pm.
During their busy seasons (April through June, and September through October), they usually lower that availability to Monday through Thursday so they can focus on completing their orders and making amazing cakes. That’s the same reason they don’t offer appointments on the weekends – they’re busy producing the cakes that defy our imaginations.
Consultations and tastings will usually last about an hour.
Most people will book cake-making services six months to a year before their big day to give plenty of time to research and make the right decision. This also gives the bakery plenty of time to execute your wedding cake dream to perfection.
Ron Ben-Israel Cake Prices
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I’m sure you’ve been wondering – these cakes are amazing, but how much do they cost?
The prices of Ron Ben Israel cakes are quite variable, depending on size, servings, design elements, and other things the customers want and find important. Sometimes smaller cakes can end up costing more than larger ones – it all really depends on the exact type of cake you’re looking for. This is definitely something that is discussed further during the consultation.
They’ll usually come up with several variations on the general idea of the cake you want so you can pick from different levels of intricacy and price tiers. To order, their minimum is $800, if that gives you an idea.
Their fancier novelty and sculpted cakes typically start at $1,500. Pricing for wedding cakes starts at $16 per person, and the cakes are usually baked in serving sizes of 25.
Are You Now Desperate for a Ron Ben-Israel Cake?
So are we.
You can find the physical Ron Ben Israel Cakes bakery and showroom in New York’s Historic Garment District at 247 West 38th St, Floor Thirteen, New York, New York 10018.
So if you’re on the hunt for a wedding cake and you’ve got the cash, get on a plane to New York and grab a Lyft to the showroom for some dream cake options – just make sure you’ve made an appointment first!
If you’re not getting married in New York City, it’s possible for your cake to be delivered, but it’s also expensive and complicated. Shipping isn’t reliable for such a delicate product, so the cakes must be delivered by cold vans for safe transport – this can be done for most East Coast locations.
Long distance is even more complicated. They can fly your cake out via private or chartered plane, but you likely have no interest in paying that much money or arranging something so complicated. Staff members usually have to be on site to assemble and put the finishing touches on your cake, too.
For design consultation or tasting appointments, you can call them at 212-625-3369 or email them at [email protected].
You can also scroll down to the Get in Touch section of Ron Ben Israel’s website and fill out the contact form.
For PR and Marketing questions email [email protected], and email [email protected] for questions and comments specific to Ron.
Do You Want to Be Able to Make Your Own Cakes?
Ron Ben-Israel offers classes and workshops at his New York City cake studio and attends pastry events worldwide – these include Sugar Salon in Paris, Cake Design Festival in Milan, LA Cookie Con in Los Angeles, America’s Cake Fair in Orlando, Cake & Bake Masters in Mexico City, and so on.
He’s quite involved in culinary education at the International Culinary Center in New York City, where as the Guest Master Pastry Chef he works with students in the Professional Pastry Arts Program and has helped to create the Cake Techniques and Design Program.
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The Professional Pastry Arts Program is an intense 600-hour hands-on training course with professional chef-instructors at the International Culinary Center’s New York campus. It’ll cover over 250 professional techniques, starting with the basics and advancing to more complex ones. There are 16 days of chocolate work, 12 days of sugar work, cake baking and decorating instruction, culinary math instruction, specialty subjects (coffee, tea, wine, gluten-free), and more.
The Cake Techniques and Design Program is an 11-week cake course meant to boost your range of confectionery skill through small classes, a curriculum designed by specialists, and in-depth experiential learning. You can pick from various classes – professional culinary arts, professional pastry arts, professional culinary plus farm-to-table, professional cake techniques, professional bread-baking, intensive sommelier training, culinary entrepreneurship/management, and more.
The classes he offers change yearly, but you can email [email protected] to be added to the class information mailing list.
For 2018, there’s one Ron Ben Israel Cakes class left and it’s in November – here’s the class information, policies, and registration if you’re interested. It’s a three-day immersive experience at the bakery for $1,400, during which you’ll get a full tour of the facilities and hands-on instruction as you learn to make sugar flowers you’ll later be able to decorate a cake with.
All needed cake-decorating supplies, instructions, recipe books, as well as snacks, coffee, tea, lunch, are all provided. You’ll also get to talk about the business of cakes, promoting your own pastry work, taking your design ideas to the next level and more throughout the experience.
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He also offers and internship program, in which he mentors up to 12 interns a year along with his staff. It’s an intense, full-time, unpaid internship for current or recent graduates of an accredited pastry arts program.
For a minimum of three months, interns will go through a classic kitchen rotation with practice in baking, decorating, and cleaning. You’ll leave the internship with new knowledge in baking, structuring cakes, and making sugar flowers and other confectionary cake decorations.
If you’re qualified and interested in applying for the internship, email [email protected] with your name, email, contact phone number, a cover letter, resume, photo samples of your previous work, and a recommendation letter from a chef instructor.