Celebrity baker Duff Goldman’s Cakemix is a hands-on retail component next to his Charm City Cakes West on Melrose Avenue in L.A. Customers can design and decorate their own cakes. Here, Goldman shows how to make shapes from colored fondant. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Celebrity baker Duff Goldman opens Cakemix on Melrose Avenue
Goldman rolls out a piece of fondant as he prepares it for pressing into a thin sheet to cover a cake. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
He adds dye to the fondant, then folds and kneads it to get an even color. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Additional fondant icing colors are available to help with the decoration. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Goldman dusts his hands and work surface with corn starch to prevent sticking. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Goldman demonstrates how to smooth the sheet of fondant over the layer cake to prevent cracks, bubbles and creases. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
He then smooths the surface of the cake. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Once the cake is covered in fondant, it’s like an artist’s canvas. Here a decorator pipes icing rosettes around the base of the cake. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
A completed cake in a floral design. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
This layer cake was decorated with fondant, colored icing and air-sprayed edible paint. The bear on top is edible too. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
A sample cake is displayed to show some possibilities at Cakemix. Next door is Charm City Cakes West, Goldman’s offshoot of his original Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, made famous in his “Ace of Cakes” TV show. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
