A Port Coquitlam custom cake baking team has done it again — winning another massive prize with a Halloween-themed dessert that scared the pants off Food Network judges.
Team Cake Magic, made up of Cassandra Curtis, Emily Skazlic and Dalana Fleming, won $10,000 on Season 4 of The Big Bake with the episode available for watching on Stack TV and Food Network.
"We were pitched against two other winning teams," said Curtis, whose team previously won the 12 Days of Cakemas episode in Season 2 of The Big Bake.
However, her team was considered an "underdog" because the other two teams, from the U.S., had won several baking championships.
Curtis, who owns Cassandra Cake Co. at #105-2331 Marpole Ave. in downtown PoCo said the five-hour episode, filmed last October, went fairly smoothly.
"We're a great team and all very experienced," she told the Tri-City News.
The only curve ball thrown by the judges was a bonus bake: they had to make pretzel worms to add to the display.
Curtis describes the five-foot high, three-and-a-half foot square cake as a "supernatural swamp" in keeping with the theme of the Halloween episode.
Not only did Team Cake Magic delight the Food Network judges with their creepy swamp-inspired treat — but the mechanical features and moving parts were also key and brought the cake to life, Curtis said, noting that team member Fleming is the expert when it comes to figuring out what to do with all motors and electrical gadgets.
"We had five hours to make a five-foot tall cake that had at least two dynamic elements," said Curtis, "We had an owl with a head that went up and down and a tree that had a face that spit candy out of its mouth."
There was also a carniverous mushroom regurgitating swamp water of out its mouth, a swamp with swamp water, mushrooms, bugs and grass.
All of the desert was made from scratch from team recipes that included: Pandan Lime Cake with a lime curd and a brown butter, cream cheese icing with caramelized graham cracker, and Pandan-flavoured Russian butter cream with sugar cookie crunch.
Curtis said it was important that the cake taste as good as it looked, and it was the combination of flavours that wowed the judges.
Meanwhile, the winnings will be split up three ways with Curtis' share going back into the PoCo business "to help us do more exciting things."
Among the exciting things on the horizon, in addition to offering high tea, baked goods and custom cakes, will be a number of fundraisers this fall, including a fundraiser for the Amanda Todd Legacy fund.
To find out more, you can follow Cassandra Cake Co. on Facebook and Instagram.
