Fancy Cakes: Hand-Crafted Perfection

Walking into Fancy Cakes by Leslie, one would never guess that its owner, Leslie Poyourow, got started in the cake business when she took a cake decorating class “because my cakes looked horrible.”

Every edible—from multi-tiered wedding cakes to cupcakes and cookies—on display in the Elm Street cake shop is a picture-perfect, hand-crafted creation that looks almost too good to eat…until one inhales the buttery-sweet cake-baking smell that pervades the open-kitchen shop.

Poyourow started Fancy Cakes by Leslie 18 years ago and moved the small business from Gaithersburg to downtown Bethesda (at 4939 Elm St.) five years ago this October.

The Bethesda location has been good for business, Poyourow told Patch. Many customers who stop by for an occasional cupcake or cookie end up placing larger orders for wedding or birthday cakes, she said.

Poyourow had been interested in a variety of home-economics-type crafts—including sewing and cooking—before starting the cake shop. Now, of course, the business is “massively time-consuming,” since the shop's products are made entirely in-house.

At first, Poyourow would do everything herself, but now, she runs the business with a small staff of dedicated bakers and cake decorators. Still, it’s a very hands-on business, and it’s “difficult not to be completely involved,” because of the many elements that go into producing a fancy cake: the customer’s expectations, the cake design, making sure that all words on the cake are spelled correctly, delivering the final product.

“I learned a lot along the way by trial and error with delivering cakes,” she said. Poyourow transports thoroughly refrigerated cakes in a mini-van kitted out with egg-crate mattresses and cushions.

She’s created cakes for all kinds of events, and for both sides of the political aisle: This year, she created cakes for Caroline Kennedy and some of her family members, as well as a cake for Newt Gingrich’s 70th birthday party. Once, she made cake for a wedding attended by 1,700 people.

“I’ve probably never known a larger wedding cake than that,” she said.

Poyourow has come a long way from her days in a cake-decorating class two decades ago. She knows the business and its trends—which, for wedding cakes, currently include lacy vintage looks and Art Deco or Art Nouveau designs inspired by wedding gowns. Fondant continues to be popular, and cupcake weddings are not as common as they were a few years ago, Poyourow told Patch.

Her advice to others considering starting a small business?

“You just have to really like what you’re doing. You better really like it because you’re going to be doing it a lot.”