20 Years of Gorgeous Wedding Cakes by Pastry Chef Ron Ben-Israel

When Ron Ben-Israel baked his first wedding cake for us in 1995, he never imagined just how far these sugary works of art would go. “I’d just started my business when there was a cosmic intervention,” he says. “Martha Stewart called after she saw one of my window displays.” Here, the NYC pastry chef shares some of his best confections that have appeared in Martha Stewart Weddings over the last two decades and tells the stories behind their creation.

Pictured: Martha Stewart and Ron Ben-Israel in the Fall 2003 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“Martha asked me to contribute to the first issue of Martha Stewart Weddings. When we met, she had a Carolina Herrera gown in her office and showed me pictures of herself as a bride, holding daisies, so I made a cake inspired by that dress and the daisy bouquet—it was such a happy statement!” 

Pictured: Cake from the Winter/Spring 1995 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings. 

“We were both ready for something new in wedding cakes. At the time, they were sort of standard. Most had peach and pink tiers, and you’d choose option A, B, or C and maybe put a bride and groom on top.” 

Pictured: Cake from the Fall 2002 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings. 

“Over the years, we began working with sugar flowers and experimenting with silicone molds and exotic flavor pairings.” 

Pictured: Cake from the Spring 2003 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“It’s so interesting—I talk to bridal designers, and they, too, have timeless designs. Every season you have to show new things, and of course it’s very exciting, but out of the new things, sometimes designs become eternal. People go back to them again and again. It happens with dresses, it happens with flowers, and it happens with cakes. And those cakes with sugar flowers...the colors and the surface might change, but it is timeless. It’s wonderful.” 

Pictured: Cake from the Fall 2003 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“As a wider audience became aware of these elements, couples started getting more creative, bringing swatches of lace to tastings.” 

Pictured: Cake from the Fall 2003 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“It’s awful to say, but it’s just the reality: People used to assume that wedding cakes were going to be dry and not very delicious. Now, I experiment with different flavors and couples are finding it’s all going to be very good.”

Pictured: Dessert buffet from the Winter 2004 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

 “The nice thing about working with the editors at Martha is...I would be challenged!” 

Pictured: Cake from the Winter 2005 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“On the matelassé cake, we actually started playing with silicone. Silicone molds are available for the sugar industry—you know, the pastry-chef industry, but not so much for cake decorating—so I started playing with it because we needed to get it for the magazine.”

Pictured: Cake from the Spring 2005 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“Then the other cake—the crewelwork—we had to figure out a way to use tiny little surgical scissors and those kinds of really disgusting dental tools and long-nosed tweezers to do this crewel embroidery effect.”  

Pictured: Cake from the Spring 2005 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“I kept developing, and the industry kept developing. I started visiting the bridal ateliers—Vera Wang and Reem Acra—and seeing what was going on behind the scenes. I saw a huge difference. People were much more receptive to the ideas.”

Pictured: Cake from the Spring 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“I would get samples from Vera Wang and other designers, and cast them in silicone, so we’d actually make an exact replication of the bridal lace.”

Pictured: Cake from the Spring 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“Since then, we’ve used so many techniques like this for the magazine. And now it’s so much more exciting to make wedding cakes—to start by talking to the bride and groom and asking them ‘Who are you? What are you going to wear?’”

Pictured: Cake from the Spring 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“I introduced clients to more exotic flavors. Then, the groom started coming and wanting to have a say, which is fun.”

Pictured: Cake from the Spring 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“Even though each cake by itself is pretty and delicious, it’s the overall change that’s part of the whole industry.”

Pictured: Cake from the Spring 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“I could pinpoint and say, ‘Having a cake that is blue or white is so exciting, but the reason behind it is that we were working with china that had those colors.’” 

Pictured: Cake from the Spring 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“The [china] story was extremely interesting, and again, we did develop new techniques.”

Pictured: Cake from the Winter 2012 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“I just found it exciting that we could get inspired by china, by patterns, by textures.” 

Pictured: Cake from the Winter 2012 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“There’s a cake that looks like mosaics inspired by Hermès. That was very challenging because we actually had to cut tiny little squares of icing and fit them next to each other.”

Pictured: Cake from the Winter 2012 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“When people realized that they could have a custom cake made, then I started to use the word, ‘inspiration.’”

Pictured: Cake from the Winter 2012 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“Everything became a source of inspiration! Today, a cake is a custom-made extension of the bride and groom. It’s so much more exciting now.”

Pictured: Cake from the Winter 2013 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“[Summer 2014] was really challenging because we had to invent so many new things to work with. Many times I can go to the designer and say, ‘Could I get a swatch of the beading or of the lace?’ Then, I dip it in silicone, and it ruins it, but we get a beautiful one-of-a-kind mold. Then, we can reuse it forever and ever.”

Pictured: Cake from the Summer 2014 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“Here, it was antique handkerchiefs. We couldn’t just go and ruin them because they were heirloom, so I started scouting and loading clay to achieve some of the textures.”  

Pictured: Cake from the Summer 2014 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“Now we have molds—because of the technology—some of the actual fabric was scanned and then digitally manipulated, so we could make our molds from it. So, we all have grown so much!”

Pictured: Cake from the Summer 2014 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“There’s no way to know what cakes will be like 10 years from now because we’ve already broken the mold so to speak.”

Pictured: Cake from the Summer 2014 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.

“It’s unpredictable, which makes it sometimes very interesting for me but also very challenging.”

Pictured: Cake from the Summer 2014 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings.