Sylvia Winestock is the Grand Dame of Cakes

To say Sylvia Weinstock is the grand dame of cakes is an understatement. This 84-year-old dynamo created the couture cake market with her multi-layered confections festooned with fondant flowers that look so real, you’d swear you shouldn’t eat them. Weinstock cakes have been go-to cake for socialites, celebs, and people in the know since the 80s. You might pay $70,000 to have a multi-layered Weinstock cake at your wedding—especially if said wedding is in Dubai, Hong Kong, or some other far-flung destination Weinstock often ships to. The distance from the cake designer’s Manhattan-based headquarters to South Florida became shorter when she cemented a partnership with St. Regis Bal Harbour last year.  On Saturday, February 21 as part of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, she’ll be teaching a master cake decorating class at the hotel on, revealing the secrets to making her famous flowers.

7AM I get up and have a double espresso and make my husband breakfast, which is generally orange juice, yogurt, and vitamins.

8AM I shower and get down to my office by eight am because I live and work in the same Manhattan building. I welcome the first person to arrive, which is the baker at eight and the rest at nine. Should they arrive on time, it would be a miracle!

9AM I look at the books. Make sure everything is set for deliveries and that the orders are done. Sometimes I do a little water coloring on the concept sketches.

11:15AM I head to the Four Seasons where I’m having lunch with the banquet manager and checking out their new ballroom, which is spectacular. When it’s finished it’s going to be quite beautiful.

2:30PM  After lunch I rush back to the office for a 2:30 appointment. I’ve met with a lot of interesting people, famous singers, CEOs, but for me, everyone who walks in my door is a princess.  I have a bride and groom who are having 200 guests on Valentine’s Day coming today. So we’ll be sampling different fillings and cakes and trying to fit something grand into a smaller budget. It’s not easy.

4PM Today we’re re-baking a new sort of cupcake we’re trying to do. We made one yesterday that was absolutely delicious, but it didn’t have the appearance we wanted, it sort of sank, so we’ll tinker with the recipe.  One of my employees is flying with a cake tomorrow to Capetown, so we prep her “cake repair kit” with extra cream and flowers. You never know what you’ll find when you open a cake shipped overseas!

6PM I’ll go upstairs to my husband and say “Where’s my drink?” We have a cocktail drink every night. Right now, I’m into American Vodka. I like Tito’s Handmade from Austin, Texas with a little orange juice or grapefruit juice in it.

7PM We have dinner and watch the news and say “Oh my god, the world is falling apart!” We usually stay in, but tomorrow is our 66th wedding anniversary, so we’ll be eating with our family at a little Italian restaurant nearby.

8:30PM After dinner I like to read. I love mysteries by Daniel Silver, The New Yorker Magazine, Vanity Fair and The New York Times.