Sylvia Weinstock

Sylvia Weinstock (January 28, 1930 – November 22, 2021) was an American baker and cake decorator.^[1][2][3] She was known for making delicious, multi-tiered wedding cakes decorated with botanically accurate sugar flowers. She also created elaborate trompe-l'oeil cakes that looked like cars, a crate of wine, Fabergé eggs, and other objects.^[4]

Sylvia Silver was born January 28, 1930, in the Bronx, New York.^[4] She was raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The family lived above their shop, which sold liquor and was later a bakery.

Weinstock completed a bachelor's degree in 1951 in psychology at Hunter College. She later completed a master's degree in education from Queens College in 1973.^[2]

Weinstock's first career was as an elementary school teacher on Long Island.^[4][5] She began selling extra cakes to local restaurants, and then apprenticed with pastry chef George Keller at the suggestion of André Soltner of Lutèce.^[4] She started her cake baking and decoration company when she was 50 years old, after surviving breast cancer.^[6][7] Friend and bakery owner, William Greenberg, began referring clients to her for wedding cakes, which he didn't make.^[2] The family moved from Long Island to Manhattan, and Weinstock baked cakes for private events, first at the Carlyle Hotel gaining clientele.^[4] She then began making wedding cakes. In 1983, she and her husband rebuilt a warehouse in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood into a four-story townhome and shop named Sylvia Weinstock Cakes.

Weinstock made decorative cakes for a variety of celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian, and Martha Stewart.^[8] She avoided using fondant in her cake decorations, calling it "cheap and easy";^[4] instead, she focused on buttercream, sugar flowers, and stenciled patterns.^[9] Weinstock was dubbed “the Leonardo da Vinci of wedding cakes" by Bon Appétit.^[2]

After retirement, Weinstock began appearing as a guest judge on the Food Network series Chopped Sweets and Top Chef: Just Desserts.^[10] She also appeared as a judge on the Netflix series Nailed It! in season 1 for which she was described as the show's "secret weapon".^[6] She taught cake decorating at the Institute of Culinary Education.^[4]

In 1949 at age 19, she married Benjamin Weinstock (1925–2018).^[2][11] They settled on Long Island in Massapequa, New York.^[4] Weinstock raised three children.^[2]

Weinstock died on November 22, 2021 in Tribeca at the age of 91. The cause of her death was the result of multiple myeloma.