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In the Press

Who's Hot: Marilyn DeVault

Source: StyleBeat in Oregon Home Magazine, November/December 2000, Page 24.

As the owner of Piece of Cake, a bakery and full-service catering business in Portland, Marilyn DeVault is Oregon's answer to Mane "Let them eat cake" Antoinette. Eagerly sought out by brides-to-be, party planners and VIPs, DeVault's icing-covered creations have ended up on the dessert plates of such notables as Neil Goldschmidt, Diana Ross, J.R. Rider, Anthony Quinn and Marilyn Manson.

Starting out with a homemade carrot-cake recipe in 1980, this former special-education teacher has expanded to more than four dozen made-from-scratch varieties, including chocolate, double fudge, chocolate raspberry, German chocolate, Irish oatmeal, lemon coconut, carrot, buttercream ganache, poppyseed, sugar-free, vegan and vegan-wheatfree. Swearing off lard, cake mixes, and other common bakery shortcuts, DeVault relies instead on butter, eggs and other fresh ingredients that maximize flavor and moistness. "I'm bizarrely passionate about cake," she admits.

Surrounded by the cake-related antiques that adorn her Sellwood shop, DeVault stepped away from her ovens to offer advice on how to have your cake and eat it, too.

Where'd you get the cake memorabilia? "From estate sales. I collect antique cake stands. I like the old clear-glass ones and the ironstone ones. I have tons of cake tops from the 1930s through the '60s, and we have them on the walls and in our cake. display cases in the shop. I've got old wedding photos and a 1905 wedding license. We like having this odd, old cake stuff in our shop; it's like a little museum."

Number of cakes you make weekly? "Hundreds."

Most popular? "The Chantilly. It's a dark chocolate cake with white cream-cheese frosting."

Is the all-white wedding cake passe? "People are moving toward color, like a Martha Stewart green, a light yellow or a lavender. I tell my customers to go to paint stores and get paint swatches for me to match. We don't make white cakes, because the only way a bakery can make a white cake is by using a cake mix and lard. We make our cakes from scratch; the ingredients -- butter, buttermilk, eggs, sour cream -- make a cake yellow."

What's the best way to display a cake before you serve it? "A cake should be the centerpiece of a table. Raise it off the table with a cake stand or a fabric-covered box, and sprinkle rose petals or flowers around the bottom of it. For a baby shower, put the cake on top of a box that's covered with a receiving blanket."

And for the holidays? "Instead of red and green, do nontraditional colors like green and purple. Raise the cake and sprinkle flowers around the edge."

What's the strangest greeting you've ever been asked to top a cake with? "One lady thought that her daughter looked like the family's pet poodle, snd had us write HAPPY BIRTHDAY, POODLEHEAD on the top of her cake."

What's a piece of cake cost at your place? "They start at $4.25 a slice. If you want a fancy, decorated cake, you can spend a lot of money. You could spend from $75 TO $1,500 on a wedding cake, depending on its size and decoration.

What's the next cake you're developing? "Gluten-free."

Does it take long to develop a new recipe? "My sugar-free cake is the most difficult cake I've ever done; it took six months to get it right. I don't believe there's a sugar-free cake in the rest of the U.S. that's as fluffy and light as mine."

What's your secret to cake baking? "Using real ingredients. I don't know anything about lard and shortening and pre-made stuff and frozen eggs. And 98.9% of our cakes have a cream cheese frosting or a special chocolate frosting. They're harder work with, but the taste, is so much better."

Like the Juliette Binoche character in Chocolat, can you predict the flavor of cake someone will like best? "Yeah, I think I'm really intuitive. When a customer comes in, I'll talk to the person, and she or he will say a couple of things, and I'll point to a cake and say, 'This is the one you'll like.' And it will be."

Ever made a cake for someone's pet? "Oh, yes, yes, yes! For 20 years, we did a carrot birthday cake for a woman's horse. She'd order one cake for her guests and one for the horse."

What's the weirdest cake you've made? "A wedding rehearsal cake for a woman who was marrying a plumber, and all the groomsmen were plumbers. She wanted a toilet-shaped cake, with a lid that went up and down, and chocolate frosting you-know-what in the 'bowl.' It was so gross."

Cards in your shop let clients know you do "naughty" cakes. What's that about? "Naughty cakes are X-rated cakes. We use a manicotti noodle to make a cake manly. Some of my employees won't do them it's against their religion."

Best compliment a customer's ever given you? "A guy came in and asked if I had a fork. Then he buys a double-layer Chantilly cake and -- I still can't believe it! -- he starts eating it right in the store. He couldn't wait until he got home."