San Francisco baker Gabrielle Feuersinger has made lavish cakes for some of the biggest celebrities, from Britney Spears to Jack Black. She baked Avril Lavigne’s 18th birthday cake, sweetened the nuptials of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore with a four-tier saffron gateau, and just last summer baked a vanilla and salted caramel buttercream cake for Post Malone in the likeness of the rocker’s Texas hometown stadium, complete with his face on the jumbotron. He called it “beautiful.”
But her latest gig just might be the coolest, especially for fans of the HBO series “Euphoria.”
Feuersinger is the mastermind behind the scalloped, 3-foot-tall wedding cake featured in the recently released third episode of the show’s third season. In “The Ballad of Paladin,” Rue (Zendaya) and the rest of the cast reunite at the extravagant reception for Nate (Jacob Elordi) and Cassie (Sydney Sweeney). The scene was filmed back in July, and Feuersinger has remained mum until now.
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Sydney Sweeney (Cassie) and Jacob Elordi (Nate) walk down the aisle in Season 3 of HBO’s “Euphoria.”
Patrick Wymore/HBO
The edgy, coming-of-age drama is not short on Bay Area ties; most fans know by now that cast members Zendaya, Marshawn Lynch and the late Angus Cloud are from Oakland. And that Colman Domingo, a key supporting actor throughout the series, got his acting start in the San Francisco theater scene.
But Feuersinger is not a famous actor; she’s an Inner Sunset mom and entrepreneur who baked her way to Hollywood after graduating from San Francisco’s now-shuttered California Culinary Academy. Feuersinger, who grew up in Noe Valley, returned to San Francisco in 2007 to launch her company, Cake Coquette, which operates out of a Bernal Heights commercial kitchen. In addition to baking for weddings and corporate events for the likes of Google and Zynga, she’s become a go-to baker for Hollywood clients.
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The “Euphoria” gig was the result of her years working at the famed Cake Divas shop in Los Angeles (now Joannie & Leigh’s), as well as her friendship with “baller set designer” Walter Martinez. Martinez works on “Euphoria” and is also known for blockbuster films “One Battle After Another,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “Bird Box.”
Gabrielle Feuersinger is seen on the set of HBO’s “Euphoria,” alongside the cake she made for a recent episode.
Courtesy of Gabrielle Feuersinger
“I was told that every element has to be over the top,” said Feuersinger, who was given a color palette that included shrimp cocktail, to match the characters’ extreme personalities. “The design had to get approved, but he gave me a lot of creative freedom.”
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Feuersinger said she devoted more than a week to prep, size and plot out her design, and at least another two weeks for construction. The cake, done up in golds, pinks and oranges, sat on a 24-inch base and reached over 3 feet tall, with a custom 3D-printed topper of Cassie and Nate that cost a pretty penny, according to Feuersinger.
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Ironically, only the royal icing details and small bottom base tier — a vanilla cake with pink cream — were real. The rest was made of Styrofoam to survive an entire week of shooting.
Gabrielle Feuersinger, right, presents a custom-made cake to Jack Black at Outside Lands in 2009.
Courtesy of Gabrielle Feuersinger
“They needed to anticipate filming a cake-cutting scene, so that’s why the bottom base was an edible base,” said Feuersinger, who spent days on set babysitting and handling her creation. “It was so big, you had to turn it if you needed multiple shots.”
The temperature on set was extra cold to accommodate ice sculptures of the couple and massive floral arrangements, so Feuersinger was tasked with constantly moving the cake to keep it from dying. “The cold was affecting the humidity of the cake and making it soft,” said the baker, who had to take it outside the sound stage into “the 80-degree LA air” to maintain its balance.
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Did they ever actually cut the cake? Yes. There was indeed a cake scene, but it ended up on the cutting-room floor. Still, if you squint, you’ll see Feuersinger’s masterpiece blurred in the background not once but twice for a few fleeting seconds. After all that work, was SF’s baker to the stars disappointed?
A view of the cake that Gabrielle Feuersinger made for Post Malone in celebration of his stadium tour.
Courtesy of Gabrielle Feuersinger
“No, I was not disappointed,” she said. “I don’t have the space in my heart to be upset about things like that. It would have been great to have the stills, but to be able to be on the set and watch the filming was amazing.”
After taping, the cake was moved to the Warner Brothers archives, a massive Los Angeles warehouse where it will live with furniture, lighting, art and other set design props in perpetuity.
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Zendaya was not on set, so Feuersinger didn’t get to meet the “Dune” star and local arts advocate, but she did enjoy watching Sweeney and Elordi work, she said. She also got to spend time watching and chatting with writer-director Sam Levinson, who recently received backlash for a season that feels at times misogynistic. Feuersinger called him serious.
An assortment of Gabrielle Feuersinger’s most recent custom-made cakes.
Courtesy of Gabrielle Feuersinger
“Super, super focused and scrutinizing every element and every shot,” she said of Levinson. Does she watch the show? No.
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“I have a very hard time with the drugs, and maybe just being a mom, it’s too much for me,” said Feuersinger, whose kids are 14 and 10. “Obviously it’s so artistically well-executed, but maybe I’ll have to circle back when my kids move out of the house.”