Mandy Krause is Baking Cakes Fit for Vogue
Friday evening, the fluorescent lights of the drug store flickered as nine-year-old Mandy pulled open the heavy glass door. It’s the late 90s, and the internet hasn’t arrived in this rural Michigan town. Mandy strolled confidently to the magazine aisle. She had walked this path often searching for the latest issue of Vogue.
Growing up, Mandy was obsessed with fashion magazines, but her family couldn’t afford the monthly subscription. On her way to sleepovers with friends, she would collect as many as she could, but Vogue was always supreme. Her friends crowded around the magazine, absorbing style, design, and clothes almost too delicious to be worn.
Vogue introduced Mandy Krause to an artistic sensibility that inspires her work as a pastry chef today.
After high school, Mandy left home to study at The French Pastry School in Chicago, trading her quiet country roads for the glamor of the big city. She excelled in her pastry classes, but decorating cakes was a challenge she could not overcome, finding the smooth exteriors and perfectly piped details intimidating and uninspiring.
Mandy didn’t want to operate within rigid boundaries so she swore off cake for life.
But at one of her early jobs as a pastry chef, she faced a dilemma. The restaurant was determined to add cake to the menu, and she was forced to decide if she would waver on her oath.
"I'm not the kind of person to feel I need to stay at a job. I’m not afraid to quit, so if there's something I don't agree with or don't want to do, I will leave.”
Mandy nearly walked out. But a spark of inspiration lured her back, determined to give it one more shot on her terms. That night, she stayed up late scouring the internet for ideas. Instead of icy white frosting, vibrant color. Instead of precise piping, an explosion of abstract design. Instead of glassy smooth edges, exposed layers. And absolutely no fondant.
She found joy in cake for the first time. Gradually, layers of sponge became a blank canvas for her, absent from the rules taught in pastry school. Each new project dripped with possibility.
As Mandy developed a tenacity for designing cakes, she set out to open her own business. Not long after opening Love & Macs, Mandy’s father passed away.
In the disorienting time following his death, she found herself in the bakery designing her first fashion-inspired cake. Cake had become for her a safe place and a home to grieve significant loss.
“When I’m designing cakes, I'm very much in my own body, processing. It's almost like a meditative space. It really helps my emotions to have a place and a space to exist in a healthy way.”
This cake, modeled after a silk Dior scarf by Maria Grazia Chiuri for Cruise 2022, was the birth of a new project for Mandy: design cakes to catch the eye of Vogue.
“I was like, wait a second. Why do I keep making cakes when I'm in agony? It's a very bittersweet thing. But this is how my pain chooses to show up. As a beautiful rose.”
Today, Mandy is eight cakes in.
Images by Moguel Photography
Each design requires upwards of fifty hours. Mandy finds inspiration when a new issue of Vogue arrives in the mail, as she browses the pages for a style that might translate into cake. Recreating the colors, textures, and patterns requires experimenting with new techniques and developing new skills.
“This project is teaching me patience and has really pushed me creatively, giving me a lot of ways to develop techniques to use in my cakes.”
Mandy’s ultimate goal is to see her cakes featured in Vogue. Through the process, she is pushing herself as a business owner, developing valuable skills as a pastry chef, and defining her style as an artist. Someday, Mandy’s cakes will be in the magazine. Until then, she will continue baking.
“I feel like I'm just now getting in the groove, really. Which means I'm going to get way better."
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Photography by Jacob Titus
