How a Sparkly Horse Show Jacket Inspired a Very Special Cake
By: Brittany Bevis
Ladies love sparkles. Diamonds, gemstones, crystals, glitter. It seems as if there’s something hardwired into the female DNA that causes us to gravitate towards glittering jewels like a horse to a carrot.
And equestrians are certainly no exception. Have you seen the elaborate creations produced by clothing designers these days? Jackets dripping with crystals, vests drowning in jewels, and fabric embellished to within an inch of it life is a norm at the major breed circuits, and we love it!
So, when a very thoughtful boyfriend, Greg Beal, wanted to surprise his lady, APHA amateur, Megan Ryden, with a special treat at the Memorial Day Classic in Waco, TX. he knew just what to do. Greg contacted a local shop, Simply Delicious Bakery, in hopes of ordering a special cake, but what he had in mind caught the cake decorators by surprise. The extreme popularity of shows like Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes, and Vegas Cakes has led to the trend of over-the-top cake masterpieces that more closely resemble works of art than they do edible confections. If Greg had his way, this particular cake would be no different.
“Greg knows how important horse shows are to me, so he wanted to do something thoughtful,” Megan says. “His initial idea was to have a cake that had something to do with Paint Horses, have a show jacket using fondant, and my trainers’ logo somewhere on the cake. However, the bakery told him they wouldn’t have enough time to do that kind of detailed fondant artwork since it was high school graduation weekend. They suggested doing a photo cake, but he said, ‘No way!’ He knew I would kill him if he put my face on a cake! Instead, the bakery said they could make the cake if he could source the cake’s decorations and get them there the next day. After the conversation with the bakery, he began frantically looking for fondant horse decorations online when he stumbled upon a post discussing edible jewels made out of sugar. From there, his cake idea went to recreating my new show jacket using edible jewels.”
The bakery loved the idea but was a bit skeptical that Greg would be able to source the decorations in such a short time frame. The reason for the difficulty has to do with the material the jewels are made out of- sugar isomalt. The edible jewels are highly perishable and are typically made to order.
“He called four different places that sold edible jewels and all said they needed a 6-10 day lead time for that kind of order. He frantically searched for places that both had edible jewels in stock and could get them overnighted to the bakery by Friday afternoon. He was only able to find two places in the country that could do it – one in New York City and one in Seattle. He somehow got 150 sugar jewels to Waco in less than 24 hours!”
“Once those edible jewels showed up at the bakery, the designer was really excited since he gave them full license to make the cake look as pretty as it could be using those jewels. The jewels were delicious and tasted like rock candy.”
Once the jewels arrived, the bakery designer got to work recreating Megan’s elaborate show jacket in cake form. It not only needed to incorporate the colors of black, gold, and teal, but it also needed to mimic the lines and graphic nature of the design. And because, when it comes to cake, the inside is just as important as the outside, there was a special plan for the flavor as well.
“Greg had them do a different flavor for each tier. The top was vanilla, the middle was chocolate with raspberry filling, and the bottom was strawberry. The cake wasn’t just a beautiful work of art, it was really delicious too. I highly recommend Simply Delicious Bakery!”
Click here for an up close video to see all those incredible, edible jewels!
Megan was completely surprised by the sweet gesture and had no idea Greg had something up his sleeve. “Funny enough, everyone in the barn saw the cake before I did. Since it had arrived when I wasn’t at the stalls, my Mom had set it out on the food table. The second I saw it, I knew it was from Greg. It’s just the type of thoughtful thing he does.”
“He does sweet things a lot, and I know him really well. It’s pretty hard to surprise me like that, but he totally did. I had absolutely zero idea he was planning anything!”
We did learn that this type of thing is just par for the course with this fun-loving couple, as we discovered that Megan had a special cake created for Greg’s birthday last year.
With a sweet treat to give her a bit of extra motivation, Megan donned her sparkly jacket and headed into the pen with her equine partner, Sensational Addiction, aka “Morgan” or “Large Marge.” The pair currently competes in Amateur Western Pleasure, Amateur Showmanship, and Amateur Performance Halter Mares under the guidance of Simons Show Horses.
“She’s just a doll and is truly the best minded and laziest horse I’ve ever known. Funny fact about her – she’s a full sibling to The Big Sensation but has no desire to do anything but Western events. She’s so lazy that I can’t even imagine trying to make her do English! She’s also really smart and a bit of an escape artist. At the last Waco show, we found her in the middle of the aisle just hanging out. Needless to say, we now clip a lead rope on her door to keep it locked for when she gets bored!”
So what was the occasion for this fantastical cake? There was NO special occasion. According to Greg, he did it “just because,” thereby earning him the honorary title of The Best Boyfriend In The World For The 2018 Show Season.
“He’s really supportive of my horse hobby. I introduced him to it pretty early on in our relationship and warned him about this crazy hobby, so he knew what he was getting into!”
Our advice to you, Megan, lock that down, ASAP! This one is a keeper.
