In my day job I work as an engineer. When I tell folks that,
they often respond with, “I would have never guessed that. I thought you were
an artist or musician.” To which I usually reply, “…thanks,” with multiple
invisible question marks swirling around my head. Why couldn’t I be both? I have
volumes of sketchbooks. Art and science have gone together since the beginning
of civilization. Relics from Roman and Greek civilizations would not have
lasted this long without marriage of the two. Do people think the engravers of
Incan and Aztec monoliths just went to town on a stone and let their minds
wander? Some of the greatest works of ancient art have lasted the ages thanks
to the marriage of math and creativity. Even ephemeral art like cake creation melds
art and science; it’s a combination of chemistry, craftsmanship, and culinary
skill. And there is plenty of each on display at Tu
Amor Cakery.
Owner Lizzie
Rodriguez creates tasty treats as well as full-on sculpture cakes that are
edible statues of characters and creatures — such as The Grinch or a unicorn —
per her customers’ requests. At her shop, I teetered between wanting to stare
in awe of the cakes and wanting to devour them in one sitting.
The process
to make a sculpted cake figure takes a few days. Rodriguez first draws a
diagram to measure proportions, before building a stable armature for the cake,
populating that structure with the layers of cake, and sculpting the cake into
the required form. The final step is to frost and detail the work. The finished
product is a thing of wonder, as are the other items she bakes every day.
Rodriguez
has been baking since she was about 8 years old. It brought her joy, she says, and
her mother noticed her talent early on. As she grew up, she kept baking and
creating more than culinary art. She won a high school art competition for a
painting she made, and she also had an interest in mechanical engineering and
professional drafting, which she started to study in college. But life got in
the way of academics, and though she had leave school to work full-time, she
still nurtured her love of art and baking. She baked all the desserts in the
restaurant owned by her father, who she says always pushed her to pursue what
made her happy. Eventually, Rodriguez registerd her
work under a DBA (“Doing Business As”) filing, and baked custom cakes from her
home. This past December, with a lot of help from her husband Roberto
Rodriguez, she opened Tu Amor Cakery,
a wonderland of sweet and savory treats.
I entered Tu Amor on one of the brightest, hottest days of the week,
and the cool, dark interior was a relief. The first thing I saw was a bright
kitchen counter with a line of differently colored Kitchen Aid mixers sitting
in a row. They were obviously in regular use, but the way the light hit them
made them look like they were illuminated by divine provenance.
Tu Amor offers a variety of freshly made items, both sweet
and savory. There are fruity puff pastries and spinach artichoke turnovers.
There are pizzas for those on the keto diet and cream-filled cupcakes. Most of
the flavors rotate daily, so you have a good chance of trying something new each
time you visit.
Of the
treats I sampled, the guava puff pastry was my favorite, but I also tried the
strawberry cheesecake, the pineapple cheesecake, and the regular cheesecake
puff pastries. All four were the right amount of sweetness and lightness;
Rodriguez says she prefers Italian cream and meringue-style as opposed to the
more common American buttercream, which is made with confectioner’s sugar. The
former are a bit denser, not overly sugary, but still full of flavor. In
addition to the puff pastries, Rodriguez also makes a tres leches cake that seemed to defy gravity, it was so
light. I sampled the flan as well, which I initially thought was cheesecake
because it looked so dense, but at the first bite I recognized the creamy,
caramel taste.
Of all the
treats Tu Amor offers, the keto items are the most
confounding. Usually when someone says they made a low-carb cake without sugar
or wheat flour, I prepare myself to eat something that resembles a brick (and
is about as sweet as one). But the cupcakes I had were so good, I thought I
picked up the wrong ones at first. Rodriguez makes entire keto cakes, and she
says her customers often send her pictures of the remains of her devoured
designs, astonished at how tasty they were.
Rodriguez does
not let her food go to waste; she shares whatever is left each day with owners
of neighboring businesses and sometimes lucky passersby. She also has a “suspended
coffee” program, where folks can order a coffee and give a little bit extra to
pay it forward for someone who may not be able to afford a cup.
