When is an apple not an apple? When you slice through its rosy, striated skin to reveal not crisp, juicy flesh but — surprise! — a shell of chocolate ganache encasing vanilla cake layers sandwiched with buttercream frosting. Unlike on the Netflix baking competition “Is It Cake?,” no one would have confused the glossy red apple sitting recently on a stainless-steel table in Cold Hollow Cider Mill’s Waterbury Center bakery for a real fruit — but mostly because it was a foot high. Cold Hollow’s new bakery manager, Jenn Gryckiewicz, had built the orb out of several cake rounds, enrobed it with chocolate, draped it with custom-tinted red fondant and brushed it with edible paint to mimic Vermont’s signature fruit in all but size. The giant apple, the 42-year-old pastry chef explained, was an example of a sculpted cake with some, but not all, of the constraints of the hyperrealistic subcategory for which “Is It Cake?” is known. A bowl of ramen made out of cake by Jenn Gryckiewicz Credit: Courtesy While Gryckiewicz hasn’t yet appeared on “Is It Cake?,” she has competed in three televised baking competition series — “Sugar Rush” in 2018, “The Big Bake” in 2019 and “Chopped Sweets” in 2020 — plus about a dozen non-TV contests. She could hold her own, though, as evidenced by photos of past deceptively creative cakes. A pair of chopsticks dangling with noodles hovers magically over a bowl of ramen. A heap of Cheetos and a stuffed turkey are ringers for the real things. A board featuring five different cheeses crafted from cake almost fooled a dairy-averse colleague. The Johnson Wales University culinary grad has been baking professionally for more than 20 years, including 15 at her own bakery in Dracut, Mass. Gryckiewicz moved to Vermont with her family in 2024 to work at von Trapp Family Lodge Resort, where she rose to executive pastry chef. She left to become bakery manager at Cold Hollow in March, where she’s planning to build the custom cake business on top of the cider mill’s evergreen menu of cider doughnuts, apple pies and cinnamon rolls. Sculpted cakes run around $350 to $400, depending on complexity, and feed 15 to 20 people. Seven Days chatted with Gryckiewicz about baking shows, the hardest cakes she’s ever made and if anyone really likes fondant. Can you share a high and a low of TV competition? Well, we won “Sugar Rush.” The prize was $10,000. For the final round, we made a purple octopus baking a cake. He is forever on my arm. [Shows off her octopus tattoo.] Being from Massachusetts, all of our rounds were themed towards the Cape and the ocean. For the cupcake round, we did a play on a Cape Codder cocktail with cranberry and white chocolate. We did a little shark and a seal scene on the cupcakes with the seal getting away from the shark. The host moved the cupcakes and then took some red powdery stuff and covered them with it. He killed my seal! But it was such great comedic relief. I was a little more anxious on “Chopped Sweets.” It wasn’t my style. Every time I tried to joke around, they were like, “This is serious.” They gave us a century egg [a Chinese-style preserved egg] in the mystery basket. I had no idea what to do with it and I didn’t taste it first. That was my mistake. First, I tried to crack it and realized, Oh, that’s not what this kind of egg does. I think I shaved it into the crust of a pie. It didn’t work out. What is the most challenging cake you’ve ever made? A life-size Christmas tree cake that was six feet tall. I’ve made a couple of cakes that had moving parts, like planets spinning around a cake or a Mario Kart going through a cake. I once made a fried-bacon cake with a little skillet made from cake and tea lights with sugar flames, like the burner flickering. And I did a stork that was standing on one leg. You really have to think about gravity and where most of that weight is going to sit. Does anyone actually think fondant tastes good? It depends on the fondant. It also depends who you ask. That’s like saying, “Is a cheeseburger good?” You go to a fancy restaurant and you get an amazing cheeseburger, it’s going to be great. You go to McDonald’s, and it’s not so great. Fondant is like that. You have Wilton fondant, which is what you can find in most stores, and it’s the worst. But you can get some fondant that is the most delicious marshmallow, white-chocolate flavor. ➆ This interview was edited for clarity and length. Cold Hollow Cider Mill, 3600 Waterbury-Stowe Rd., Waterbury Center, 802-244-8771 or follow Jenn Gryckiewicz on Instagram. The original print version of this article was headlined “Piece of Cake | Three questions for competitive baker and Cold Hollow Cider Mill bakery manager” The post Three Questions for Competitive Baker and Cold Hollow Cider Mill Bakery Manager Jenn Gryckiewicz appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less