Baseball Hat Groom's Cakes

With baseball season under way, we're suddenly seeing a lot of baseball caps everywhere.

We're often asked to make baseball cap cakes for grooms (and for a few brides) who are diehard baseball fans. The first one we made, 5 years ago, was a challenge, but Ana and her staff instantly became experts at recreating caps, down to the stitching, the eyelets, the plastic straps in back, and just the right wrinkling and texturing to make them look real. We make several baseball cap cakes every year, and a new website we're working on will have a page where clients can order them. We make our baseball hat cakes slightly larger than life size, big enough to serve about 15, but small enough where they don't look unnaturally large.

Seeing that most of our deliveries are to New York City, we most often make Yankees caps (apologies to my great grandfather, who started following the Red Sox when they were still called the Pilgrims, and to the numerous other Red Sox fans from 5 generations of my family), but we've also made caps for the Red Sox, Mets, Cubs, and several college teams.

Last year we had the opportunity to make a special baseball cap.

Erica Cates (now Erica Powell) from Ambiance Luxe Wedding Designs, a great wedding planner who has also become a good friend, was marrying Jon Powell in western New York state. Our bookings that weekend kept us from making what would have been a 12-hour (round trip) delivery of their wedding cake, but we wanted to do something special for Erica and Jon.

I knew that Jon, a fellow graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, was getting ready to leave the Navy after his service as a submariner. We learned from Erica that Jon was most proud of his service on the USS Philadelphia, which had been homeported in Groton; Jon was a member of her last crew before decommissioning.

When not in port, you'll rarely see a Navy sailor wearing anything on his head other than a ship's cap. I have a collection of ships' caps from my time as a midshipman and a Marine officer, and each has at least a story or two behind it. In fact, I usually wear a ship's cap when I supervise the baking staff in the kitchen, and when I go for a run in inclement weather. Those of us who have served on Navy ships can get very attached to our caps.

With the help of google, we were able to find the Philadelphia's logo, which includes Dolphins (the submariner's badge). Jackie, one of Erica's planners with whom we often work, was kind enough to bring the groom's cake to the wedding.

We were very happy to learn that Jon and his Navy buddies loved the cake, and that Erica and Jon displayed and served it at brunch the day after the wedding.