The beef on weck cake at Haak's Cakes in Hamburg.
Just remember that “Haak” rhymes with “cake.”
After that, understanding how this Hamburg baker came to prominence is easy as pie.
Stephanie Haak is the brains, and the hands, behind a new contestant in the “most Buffalonian” dessert category: the beef on weck cake.
Come around a corner and find it sitting on the counter, your average weck worshiper would feel their heart skip a beat. When they find out it’s vegetarian, their heart might skip again, but the consolation prize is built right in: cake.
At Haak’s Cakes, 9 E. Union St., Hamburg, Haak can build this work of sugar art on a cake foundation of any flavor you prefer.
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“The last one was chocolate and peanut butter,” she said, after agreeing to explain how the magic happens. This particular edible illusion costs $125.
She’s open to other suggestions, for sure.
“I've done a giant cannoli. I've done a giant pickle. I did a cooked turkey,” Haak said. “Spaghetti and meatballs.”
“It was like a giant bowl of spaghetti just falling down the cake,” she explained. “I had sauce on it, which was like jelly. Then the meatballs, which were actually cake pops.”
Haak, a graduate of the Niagara Falls Culinary Institute, spent two years baking cakes for customers while renting space in other peoples’ kitchens. Encouraged by her regular customers to find a retail space of her own, Haak gathered her courage, and her financial wherewithal, and signed a lease.
Haak's Cakes owner Stephanie Haak puts some icing on a cake at the shop in Hamburg.
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Opening day was the two-year anniversary of her business, an auspicious day: March 19, 2020.
“Then all the sudden, that Monday was when they made the call to shut down all the businesses, and everything just to curbside,” Haak said. “So we kind of had a jump on the curbside train, and then that's how we started.”
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Asked for a beef on weck cake, Haak knew she had what it took.
“Fondant is like edible Play-Doh," Haak said. "It's just sugar that's moldable and it holds its shape and form and you can do pretty much anything with it.
“I grab a fondant and a bench scraper, and I kind of shave the fondant almost like a butcher shaves roast beef. I was trying to like get in the zone of the meat guy and to get that like roast beef texture.”
It worked out nicely, with a grainy texture, she said.
“Then I chopped and shaved a bunch of fondant, then you layer it all up on the sandwich,” Haak added.
“So now you have your tan buns, but the meat part is all white. Then you go through with your airbrush, like a white, pinky-brown base. Then I go in with just brown, then red to make that little like medium rare-ish coloring and then I go in with a pearl so it goes into kind of like iridescent colors sometimes roast beef has.”
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“I mushed some cake in there to give it that chunkiness, and then I use mostly buttercream and then dyed it a little bit with ivory to give it that off-color white,” Haak said.
“The pickle is just fondant, decorated. Then I use a corn syrup and food coloring mixture to put on it to give it a glossiness and the juice around it.”
Stephanie Haak’s work of edible art has put Haak’s Cakes in the hunt for the championship of Buffalo desserts.
She'll always have cinnamon rolls available, but can book up on project cakes like the beef on weck cake. Because as new as her business is, Hamburg already knows: Haak knows cake.
Send restaurant tips to agalarneau@buffnews.com and follow @BuffaloFood on Instagram and Twitter.
January 12, 2021 at 05:00PM
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