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Amongst cake professionals, when it comes to cake decorating, all roads lead first and foremost to Betty Van Norstrand. I have heard about her reputation as undisputed queen of gumpaste flowers and other original decorative techniques for as long as I can remember. Most of the people who are selling gumpaste flowers around the country were trained by her.
Betty taught and partnered with the now world renowned Sylvia Weinstock, and also taught the great cake artist Ron Ben Israel. Several years ago I sent one of my dearest friends to study with Betty, but I had never actually met her myself. And finally, last Fall, I made the trip to upstate New York, near the CIA to spend the day with Betty.
I had the idea that I would include a technique for a simple gum paste flower in my upcoming book as a tribute to her. But the manuscript became too large even to include all the recipes so I came to the conclusion that Betty should write a book entirely devoted to her art!
We had a delightful getting to know each other lunch at the CIA and went around to say hello to several old friends who are now baking professors there. It’s always an inspiration to visit this culinary academy but the biggest inspiration was seeing Betty’s home, work studio, and specialized equipment.
Betty started off as a water color artist and brought these skills to her astonishing work in gum paste and cake design. She has been working in cake decorating for over 40 years and has also done all manner of special projects including a collaboration with former White House Pastry Chef Albert Kumin on a giant cake for the 15th anniversary of Walt Disney world featuring a 5 foot sugar replica of Cinderella’s castle.
In addition to being a first class artist, Betty is also a first rate teacher and beautiful person. And lucky YOU: she teaches one or two week-long classes a year at the Culinary Institute of American in Hyde Park. Check their curriculum—it will be a chance of a lifetime for anyone interested in learning or improving their decorating skills in royal icing techniques, gum paste, rolled fondant, and pastillage.
Traveling classes are arranged by direct contact with Betty , by phone: 845 471 3386 or 914 475 1314.
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hello sweet dina! yes i miss you so much too! and i've been absolutely buried in book production. it was so great to get your posting!
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | May 17, 2008 2:28 PM #
Hi Rose, It's Dina Bonnet. I was thinking of you lately.Remembering the lovely meal and wonderful company.I'm missing you terribly. We need to get together.
I hope you read this.
I happened to be searching for Betty and I found two amazing women on the same page.
Reply to this Posted by: Dina Bonnet | April 14, 2008 1:14 AM #
I believe Betty was taught her craft by my aunt, Mrs. Irene Miller. They wrote a book together back in the late 1970's and I don't know the title but would love to see the book, does anyone out there know the title?
Reply to this Posted by: Barbara Padillo | November 19, 2007 2:11 PM #
i sure would like to have seen that show! thanks for sharing another great betty generosity story. your lucky wife!
just back from europe and racing around trying to catch up plus make an unexpected cake for a dear friend who's turning 60. i decided not to do anything fancy decoration wise and put the focus on flavor and texture but happened to stop by ron ben israel's nearby studio. he's on vacation but his assistant gave me a tour and presented me with the perfect decoration for the cake--the most magnificent pastillage rose imaginable. i'll be posting the photo on the blog!
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | October 31, 2007 6:27 PM #
By the way, Jane's cakes were shown on that episode of "Secret Lives of ... Wedding Cakes" when Sylvia Weinstock kicked Jim out of her kitchen on camera. When you see the fondant cakes with sugar gems, spun sugar, Bridal Dress and others during the cutaways and in-between the interview segments, those are Artistic Confections cakes.
When people see Jane's flowers and say they look like those seen in Ron Ben Israel's work -- they are really seeing Betty's work carried forward amazing people for years to come.
Reply to this Posted by: Tom LeClair | October 27, 2007 12:23 PM #
All roads DO lead to Betty! Aside from being the nicest - dare I say, sweetest(?) - consummate pastry professional, Betty is truly amazing when she is in Teacher mode. I'm sure Ron can attest, once Betty gets started sharing her craft, the love and passion for passing on what she learned is endless ... if not contagious. Betty graciously invited my wife, Jane, into her home studio for three days of one-on-one training that ultimately led to an ongoing mentor-friendship that continues to this day.
If you want to REALLY learn how to become the best you can be, invest in yourself and make the pilgrimage up the Hudson River to Betty's House of Amazement; just down the way from the C.I.A.
Artistic Confections got its great start because of Jane's commitment to master the craft, tips, tricks and techniques learned under the watchful eyes, ears and nimble fingers of truly the Master of the Confectionery Universe.
Reply to this Posted by: Tom LeClair | October 27, 2007 12:16 PM #
the cream cheese pastry is wonderfully tender, especially using pastry flour so i would use the all butter pastry and bleached all-prupose. that should be flaky but also stand up better to the filling.
i woujld precook the meat and vegetables so as not to make the pastry soggy.
i've never made cornis pasties so i would begin by googling but there are many UKrs on the blog who surely will respond!
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | September 17, 2007 6:44 PM #
I need advise on how to make traditional English Cornis Pasties without using pork products.
My son enjoyed them in London and woul like to take them for school lunch.
I made some using the cream cheese pastry but it's too fragile for a book bag.
Can you suggest a firmer dough for the casing and one that does not use lard?
Is it best precook the meat and vegtables or let them cook in the dough as it bakes?
What's the best mix of meat and vegetables?
Marc r
Reply to this Posted by: marc reynolds | September 17, 2007 6:39 PM #
Rose, YES, I plan to make La Porcelaine!
Reply to this Posted by: Hector | September 17, 2007 4:55 PM #
Thanks! That's sweet of you. Who knows....
Reply to this Posted by: Zach Townsend | September 17, 2007 4:35 PM #
zach--should you care/dare to venture there (this sounds like a poem) you would do magnificently--you are a great craftsman. and hector--the rose photo immediately made me think of you and your many roses.
i was just showing the miele repairman (who went to johnson & wales culinary school by the way) the roses i kept from the original cake i made for the cover of the cake bible 20 years ago. they have been exposed to eastern morning light for all these years and yet have kept their vivid red color. something of a miracle!
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | September 17, 2007 4:21 PM #
Now I am convinced to start my exploration on sugar roses. A fortune to have Ben-Israel's beautiful creation posted!
If I understood well, what a clever idea to create this cake dome. You remove the dome to slice the cake, then you detach petals from the dome to include on each serving.
IT IS A LABOR OF LOVE. I can't possibly estimate how many hours this took to make, or how much $ 'each petal' costs!
Reply to this Posted by: Hector | September 17, 2007 4:17 PM #
Magnificent! Thanks for sharing. I don't venture into this area with decorating so I'm always fascinated by what is achievable.
Reply to this Posted by: Zach Townsend | September 17, 2007 2:11 PM #
Wow, what a treat indeed! Ron Ben-Isreal is a wonderful teacher, and just an amazing talent!
Reply to this Posted by: Patrincia | September 16, 2007 5:30 PM #
ron be-israel!!! what an honor and treat to have this posting from you. i'm so pleased to know about "betty" in brooklyn. i know it sounds a bit mystical but i deeply believe that people eventually get what they deserve (not always monetarily though).
thanks for posting the photo--unbelievable--you are one-of-a-kind amazing artist in your own right. no one does it like you--the beckham of cake decorating and you can quote me!!! (bend it like ben-israel)
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | September 16, 2007 4:07 PM #
Hi Rose,
I'm so glad you had a chance to work with Betty. You and her have been my two true prophets all along!
Betty was too humble to mention that our friends and colleagues Ellen Baumwoll and Cheryl Kleinman have named their new Brooklyn bakery "Betty" in her honor. Now I need to open "Cafe Rose" in yours...
Since Betty initiated me to the secrets of making sugar roses, here is the biggest one I've made. It's actually a domed cake, decorated with hundreds of individual petals. Once the cake is cut, each guest gets a petal along the slice on the plate.
(The original version appeared in InStyle Weddings magazine.)
Reply to this Posted by: Ron Ben-Israel | September 16, 2007 1:41 PM #
My kids love her glasses too! They refer to her as "the cake lady with the glasses," and I believe have a great deal of respect for her because of them. :)
She is fantastic.
Reply to this Posted by: Cathy | September 10, 2007 10:57 AM #
I just love Sylvia's glasses - what style!
Reply to this Posted by: Patrincia | September 10, 2007 10:13 AM #
sylvia's the small woman with dark hair and huge glasses!
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | September 10, 2007 9:50 AM #
I just remember a charming, silver headed lady with glasses that he was introducing as the 'queen of gumpaste flowers.'
Reply to this Posted by: Zach Townsend | September 10, 2007 9:33 AM #
Oh, I saw that show! But for some reason I was thinking it was Sylvia Weinstock that was too busy for him that day (the mind is going!). It was pretty funny!
Reply to this Posted by: Patrincia | September 10, 2007 9:29 AM #
Thanks for sharing this story. I think I saw Betty on a TV program on the Food Network a long time ago, with that host "Jim" from "The Secret Life of..." That had to be her. She actually told him and the camera crew to go away when they arrived because she was too busy. They came back later. It was quite funny.
Zach
Reply to this Posted by: Zach Townsend | September 10, 2007 9:22 AM #
Truly breathtaking! It's a different level of cake artistry altogether. I agree - if we ever do gumpaste - they have to look as exquisite, if not - just keep to piping!
Reply to this Posted by: Elicia | September 9, 2007 10:33 PM #
hector, i felt like a surrogate mother doing bernachon's book. it's so much easier (and still not easy) doing one's own work.
i adore betty but writing these kinds of instructions would give me a nervous breakdown and she also does not underestimate the effort involved.
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | September 9, 2007 5:30 PM #
truly she is--anyone interested should make this investment--it's a chance of a life-time and will be a most joyful adventure.
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | September 9, 2007 5:27 PM #
That's amazing!
Reply to this Posted by: Amy | September 9, 2007 5:19 PM #
She sounds like a treasure for sure!
Reply to this Posted by: Patrincia | September 9, 2007 3:20 PM #
I've been a big fan of Sylvia Weinstock for some time now, and it is fun to hear about her mentor. What a dream it would be to be able to take Van Norstrand's classes! I'll have to look it up to check on it.
Thanks for writing about your time with her, Rose.
Reply to this Posted by: Cathy | September 9, 2007 3:18 PM #
Now, this is the type of edible art that is to appreciate. What a delicacy and legacy work. I feel that Betty Van Norstrand's work is almost like a lost craftmanship that not many people practice today... almost like trying to find a good seamtress!
Rose, hook up with her and write the book with/for her! Your collaboration with Bernachon needs to be repeated.
Reply to this Posted by: Hector | September 9, 2007 1:14 PM #
if enough people push her! she's so busy teaching and creating i'm sure it's hard to stop and put it all together and writing about cake decorating is probably the most difficult technical writing imaginable.
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | September 9, 2007 10:17 AM #
Stunning flowers! So, do you know if is she going to do her own book?
Reply to this Posted by: Patrincia | September 8, 2007 7:07 PM #
WOW. Those flowers are amazing! She truly is a master at her craft.
Reply to this Posted by: Kim | September 8, 2007 5:20 PM #