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Quick Take:
Lisa Dowling, a cake decorator at Market of Choice in Eugene, recently earned the award of fan favorite at a trade show.
Lisa Dowling’s face brightens when she discusses tigers, flowers, and vampires. But she’s not an artist or sculptor, a wildlife photographer, or a fantasy novelist. She’s a cake decorator.
For two decades Dowling has been transforming sugar and butter into edible masterpieces at Market of Choice on 29th Avenue and Willamette Street in Eugene. This year, her artistic talents earned her recognition on a national stage when she was selected as one of four decorators out of 150 to compete in the cake decorating competition at the International Dairy Deli Bakery Association trade show in New Orleans, June 1-2. She walked away with the Fan Favorite award.
“It was more of a personal triumph,” she said. “I wanted it for myself and that was exciting. I’m not somebody who has ever thought of myself as being competitive at all, but this is something I have wanted to do for a while.”
And now that she’s had the experience, she thinks she has what it takes to win grand champion next time.
A visual sense
Born in Eugene but raised in various cities, including Portland and Seattle, Dowling returned to Eugene in high school and has called it home ever since. After getting a job at Valley River Inn in her early 20s, she prepared desserts such as flambé.
“I started to develop more of an interest in dessert,” she said. “And my mother was a visual merchandiser doing department store window displays and stuff. So I briefly did a little bit of that, too. But I think what has always been there is that sense of presentation.”
Dowling first started at Market of Choice at the Willakenzie location with a natural artistic instinct and an eagerness to learn.
Sculpting the extraordinary
Dowling said she doesn’t eat cake much, preferring instead crunchy and salty treats.
“I’ve never met a potato chip I would turn down,” she said.
Her left and right forearms reveal her hobbies though, with tattoos of a piping bag on her right arm and a hot glue gun and an X-Acto knife on the left, marking her as the artist she is.
What sets Dowling apart from typical grocery store cake decorators is her willingness to tackle ambitious sculptural projects and detailed decor that is more typical of the work at a boutique bakery. She’s created a tabletop-sized pirate ship complete with masts, sails, and portholes; a realistic human bust; and intricate 3D animals. She also enjoys creating miniatures.
The stuffed animal–sized tiger, sculpted to sit upright, was one of her favorite creations. She also crafted a female vampire head complete with glossy eyes and detailed teeth (with only a touch of blood to set the mood) to showcase her love for Halloween. Dowling has mastered flowers and petals of all sorts, making garden-worthy bouquets out of icing as well as sculpting them with gum paste (a type of stiff sugar dough) and giving them realistic color variations, stamens, and pistils.
“I really love realism,” Dowling said. “I think anybody who’s an artist naturally kind of gravitates towards a certain style. Some people gravitate more cartoony, and they’re really good at it. And then some people gravitate towards more like what I do.”
National recognition
When Dowling’s bakery manager approached her about the national competition, she jumped at the chance. She submitted a portfolio showing sheet cakes, tiered cakes, and cupcakes and she was selected to compete.
The competition took place over two days at a convention center in New Orleans, with live audiences watching as the four decorators worked alongside one another at a large table.
The decorators had a time limit, and they also had to contend with microphones and cameras capturing every moment. For the first round, competitors had to choose a holiday theme and incorporate mystery ingredients. Dowling chose Easter, thinking that would allow her to use the widest range of colors, and she also chose dried mangoes and blueberries as her required ingredients.
Dowling created a Lambeth-style cake, a type of decoration known for its elegant, intricate details. Dowling said she used a chunk of time at the beginning of the round creating her many color bags, and ultimately, she ran out of time to complete the detailed decorations she had intended.
“I decided to use those mangoes because the mangoes were large and kind of flat and I could cut them into shapes,” she said. “I was able to make flowers out of those, and snip them and make little baskets. I also used them for whiskers, because I sculpted a little rabbit that I set on top of the sheet cake that I did in my last 45 minutes.”
Though she didn’t win the overall competition, the fan favorite award — voted on by convention center passersby — was perhaps more meaningful.
The competition was a learning experience for Dowling, who admits she chose decorations that were “probably too complicated” for the time constraints. Her ambitious three-tier design was meant to represent the host city New Orleans and the trade show itself, with a miniature deli, dairy department, and silhouettes of a second-line band topped with a piano.
“I tend to do that,” she said. “Next time I need to be realistic about what I can get done. But my ideas are big.”
Expert tips for cake success
After nearly 20 years of crafting custom creations, Dowling offers practical advice for customers looking to order the perfect cake. Dowling schedules consultations separately for wedding cakes and tiered cakes.
Plan ahead
Allow for at least three days notice for an average order. “If it’s something more complicated, say somebody wants to order a special flavor cake we might not have, we might need a little more time for that,” Dowling said.
Bring inspiration
Customers may have a general idea of what they are looking for, but having an image for inspiration helps. “If it’s something more complicated, like a shape cake or a drawing, I always ask that they provide images,” she said.
Consider your budget
Dowling says she can come up with ideas no matter how much is available to spend, so just let her know.
Proper storage
Placing a square of wax paper or plastic wrap on the cut edge of a cake can help keep it from drying out.
Keep any cake with whipped cream or a custard base refrigerated. Other cakes are shelf stable. In hot weather, however, consider refrigerating all cakes.
