Bethesda baker takes the cake

It’s a safe bet that almost everyone harbors a secret desire to work in a bakery. Surrounded all day by towering weddings cakes, buttery cookies and chocolatey brownies — to say nothing of the chance to sneak licks of creamy frosting or snippets of cookie dough — that sounds a bit like heaven. Well, at least for some of us.

And on those terms, perhaps one of the luckiest people around is Leslie Poyourow, owner and chief baker and cake creator of Bethesda’s Fancy Cakes by Leslie.

Formerly located in Gaithersburg’s Kentlands, Poyourow’s bakery has moved to a pedestrian-friendly location, welcoming moms with strollers, moms with teens, moms with their friends and anyone else with a sweet tooth aching to munch on a colorful cupcake or a cookie studded with perhaps 10,000 chocolate bits.

Surrounded by plates of flower-bedecked cupcakes — some tiny, some large — Poyourow, wearing a black apron imprinted with floured fingerprints (hers), sits down to tell her story.

“I always baked at home,” she says, “starting at age 13. I took cake decorating as a hobby because I wanted to make a pretty cake, and I always liked from-scratch baking. But my cakes always looked like little mountains.”

After some basic training — when she learned about squaring off the rounded tops of cake layers and using the correct amount of batter in pans — her cake-baking future moved forward in giant leaps. But not immediately, for instead of baking, native Washingtonian Poyourow attended the University of Maryland, majoring in business and working in government marketing.

Gradually, the inner baker began to emerge, moving her from hobby to business.

“I became obsessed with cake decorating,” she says. “I would come home from work and make flowers and other decorations.” Within a year, she started selling her cakes.

To put the final touches on her developing passion, Poyourow signed up for post-graduate classes in cake design taught by Collette Peters at Gaithersburg’s Confectionary Arts School of Ewald Notter, one of the world’s most prestigious sugar and chocolate schools. By 1996, she opened her first shop and launched herself into a confectioner’s dream job of creating individualized fantasy cakes.

She remembers perhaps the largest wedding cake she’s ever baked, one large enough to feed 1,700 guests. Designed in fuchsia and gold, the huge cake was lifted up onto a stage, where Poyourow said she feared it would wobble and tip over.

As she surveys the steady stream of cake-hungry customers filing into the store, she remarks on how baking, especially cake baking and decorating, has become something of an obsession with Americans, a state she attributes to the Food Network and its spate of cake baking challenges.

She has appeared with Baltimore’s Duff Goldman from “Ace of Cakes,” has competed in “Ultimate Cake Off” on TLC, created the winning cake for the “Today” show’s “Hometown Wedding” and was honored to bake Pope Benedict’s 81st birthday cake.

“I also bake for lots of locals,” she says, “such as for Hillary Clinton’s mom’s 90th birthday, for local football players.” And, she adds, a few months ago she baked a birthday cake for Jennifer Lopez’s husband, Marc Anthony.

Fortunately for the next generation of cake bakers, Poyourow shares her knowledge during weekly cake baking and decorating classes. She’s also set up a mini “cake decorating” station, called “TLC,” with sprinkles, so children have a chance to create their own personalized cupcakes.

No wonder that Poyourow has overheard a youngster say, “Let’s go to the happy store.”

Perhaps he should have said, “Let’s go eat cupcakes.”

Q&A with Chef Leslie Poyourow

What is your comfort food?

Unfortunately, red velvet cupcakes. Or any international food, like Vietnamese pho.

How do you get your inspiration?

I get so much from the people who come in. They have such a passion, and I want to do something special for them.

What’s in your fridge right now?

Nothing. One bottle of pomegranate juice, one bottle carrot juice. Water. I’m never home, so I don’t cook.

Which chef do you admire most?

Probably a cake decorator, such as Sylvia Weinstock. She’s amazing and still doing it. She’s a pioneer. In terms of great recipes, Ann Amernick [of Palena fame].

Where do you go on vacations?

Usually to Europe. I am getting ready to go cake decorating and pastry shop hopping.

From the Chef’s Kitchen

Leslie’s Carrot Cake

Serves 12 to 15

1 lb. finely grated carrots

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1/3 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

12 oz. melted and cooled unsalted butter

3 oz. walnuts, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 6-inch round pans with nonstick spray and line with parchment paper.

Mix together the carrots, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla extract, sugar and ginger; stir well to combine.

Fold in and stir the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir in the butter, and beat on medium for 1 minute. Fold in the nuts, if using. Spoon into the prepared pans.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.