4 Levels of Birthday Cake: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

We challenged chefs of three different skill levels – amateur Emily, home cook Gabrielle, and professional chef Penny Stankiewicz from The Institute Of Culinary Education – to make us a celebratory birthday cake. Once each level of chef had iced up and served their creation, we asked expert food scientist Rose to explain the choices each made along the way – both good and bad. Which birthday cake are you blowing out the candles on first?

Check out Penny’s level 3 recipe on the ICE blog: https://www.ice.edu/blog/explosion-cake

Follow chef Penny at @penny.stankiewicz
Follow Emily at @emilyslamduncan
Find Gabrielle at @gabchappel
Looking for Rose? Head to @rosemarytrout_foodscience
The Institute of Culinary Education is on Instagram at @iceculinary


Level 1 – Emily Duncan
Level 2 – Gabrielle Chappel
Level 3 – Penny Stankiewicz

Director: Vanessa Moreno
Editor: Manolo Moreno
Director of Photography: Eric Brouse
Producer: Tyre Nobles
Associate Producer: Blake Jesse
Culinary Producer: Carrie Parente
Culinary Assistant: Leslie Raney
Culinary Assistant: Stevie Stewart
Audio: Austin Rumsey
Post Production Supervisor: Stephanie Cardone
Associate Director, Post Production: Nicole Berg

Epicurious Video Team
Jonathan Wise
Ali Inglese 
Dan Siegel 
Rhoda Boone 
Carolyn Gagnon 
June Kim
Holly Patton 
Myra Rivera
Billy Keenly

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21 Replies to “4 Levels of Birthday Cake: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious”

  1. 1. Birthday cake, 2. a normal cake for tee time and 3. a mini wedding cake

  2. L3 was the best but it looks more like a wedding cake
    L2 love the flavor and aesthetic
    L1 Emily is better in other challenges. But hers looks more like a bday cake among the three

  3. Only the master chef was given a cake board. A cake board should be used under your cake and not iced directly on the turntable. Also, not one of these ladies used gloves for food handling. There is also a large icing tip number 789 with a large bag that can be used to apply icing, it's fast and easy once you practice with it. I was a cake decorator at the store level for years and I guess I notice these things. Overall, watching these ladies was fun, and I learned some things that I did not know that I can try when I bake. I think all three levels were fun to watch.

  4. "It's like I've done it before" <—And THERE'S the key to successful baking

  5. Was it just me or did everyone understand half of what Rosemary said????

  6. i just wished that level 2 cook put some REAL peanut butter and not just POWDER lol

  7. 1:19 I have a recipe for muffins that I wrote, which uses this same combination of flour. I did that bc I wanted a muffin with structure, but a lighter texture

  8. Why is the second one always the best one? ???? I always love the second one. ????

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