Here's What Duff Goldman Made For Obama's 2013 Inauguration
If you can dream it, Duff Goldman can make it. Charm City Cakes, home to master cake artist Goldman and his crazy artistic team, headlines their website with the banner "We don't make cakes, we make dreams come true." It also displays an impressive list of entities that they've made cakes for, including Nascar, Lucasfilm, NBC, Make a Wish, USO and Jack Daniels. Goldman once made a Wedgewood-inspired cake for then-first lady Hillary Clinton, per Bon Appetit. Goldman's favorite creation was a life-size, functioning R2D2 cake he made for George Lucas. It comes as no surprise, then, that Goldman was asked to create a cake for former President Barack Obama's 2013 inaugural ball.
The process of creating the design and determining the elements of that masterpiece, was, according to a 2013 interview Goldman did with Bon Appetit, quite the collaboration. He explained that although first daughters Sasha and Malia Obama were fans, he believes he was chosen to make the cake as a result of some work he'd done for the State department. By the end of the process, he had sent 12 sketches to the powers-that-be in the decision-making process. The end result was a nine-tiered work of art, covered in silvery fondant and graced with stars, bunting, presidential seals, and classic patriotic trimmings that was, well, fit for the Commander-in-Chief.
Duff Goldman's inauguration cake was copied
If imitation is the highest form of flattery, Duff Goldman should be very flattered by former President Donald Trump's inauguration cake. The copycat inauguration cake, which sparked a minor #cakegate scandal, was outed by Goldman himself on Twitter, as he pointed out that he had not made it. There were no hard feelings about the dupe, though — Goldman later tweeted a congratulatory message for the cake's creator, Buttercream Bakeshop, who admitted that they were asked to copy Goldman's cake, per DCist.
Not only was Trump's cake not an original design, but it also differed from the 2013 cake in that it wasn't even cake. Apart from the bottom layer, it was made of plastic foam, while Obama's cake was the real deal, consisting of layers of red velvet, lemon-poppyseed, pineapple-coconut, and pumpkin chocolate chip.
That wasn't the first presidential cake-related controversy, though. In 1961, a renowned Boston baker was chosen to make President John F. Kennedy's cake, but as he was non-union, he ended up foregoing the honor, according to The Christian Science Monitor. The task fell to the American Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union, whose 5000-pound cake was only eaten by the president, the vice president, and their wives.