East Asian Culture Meets Western Pastry at Silk Cakes
Chef Judy Lai’s creations are more than just camera-worthy. At Silk Cakes, her jewel-like shop in Forest Hills, her pastries pay homage to her culture, blended with a playful, dramatic flair. Silk Cakes is a modern Asian American cake shop bringing together East Asian culture and Western pastry.
“A lot of things you see on the menu are inspired by Asian influences, my culture and background,” said Lai. “We try to think through our products rather than just bring them out for sale or Instagram purposes.”
Lai grew up on the Lower East Side. Born to parents who immigrated from Hong Kong, the whimsical chef is a first-generation Chinese American whose family and heritage have played pivotal roles in shaping her culinary career.
After nearly seven years of working as an accountant for Sony Music Publishing, Lai was in search of a career change. “I knew I needed a way out,” she said. “Accounting wasn’t my passion and I needed to figure out what I wanted to do. It took a lot of soul searching.” Despite having no prior professional experience in the culinary world, she took a chance and enrolled in a nine-month intensive program at the French Culinary Institute (FCI, now International Culinary Center).
Upon graduation, Lai worked as a pastry chef at L’École restaurant, the student-run restaurant of FCI. “Each of my colleagues handled one station; I chose to handle pastry. What I didn’t realize was that I’d be the only one handling pastry, preparing pastries for a hundred people per night.”
Lai recalls how fulfilling, yet tough, it was working in a restaurant and started searching for a tiny, affordable brick-and-mortar studio of her own.
“As I was working at FCI, I opened my own cake studio, so I was bouncing between two jobs. It was really intense. It got even more intense when, after about five years into my career, I took a position as cake decorating instructor. I did that for almost two years.”
Fast forward to 2009, she opened up Silk Cakes. Her gourmet cupcake menu is filled with unique flavors you’re unlikely to find anywhere else. “Growing up Asian American, we grew up eating many Asian desserts and were exposed to ingredients like black sesame, green tea … etc. and we also grew up eating many American desserts such as cheesecakes and cupcakes. The desserts at our shop are a reflection of what we grew up eating.”
Chocolate with green tea buttercream, yuzu with strawberry buttercream, vegan ube with coconut whipped cream and black sesame with peanut butter are just several of the many inspired flavors offered.
“Asian parents always show their love through food. Food is an expression of love versus verbally saying ‘I love you,’” said Lai. “Our parents would do things to show us they loved us because they were limited in words.”
A particularly inventive creation? Her cheesecake with almond crust. “We grew up eating cheesecake because of the Italian bakeries. Our dad would make almond cookies and so the crust itself came from us trying to think about how we could incorporate something that is of our background into the dessert.”
Indulging your cravings at Silk Cakes is an experience that’s more than just getting your sugar fix. You’re taste buds are opened up to a new range of flavors for the Western pastry, flavors that emerge from Lai’s creative process, one which is inseparable from her upbringing and heritage.
Silk Cakes is an innovator in the world of pastry that’s pushing the boundaries of what traditional American baked goods are and that’s an exciting thing for both consumers and those who work in the industry as a whole.
Silk Cakes | @silkcakes
International Culinary Center | @iccedu
