Bon Appétit Management Company celebrated Halloween by treating students to candy and spooky-themed cakes, as it does every year.
The Knorr Dining Room dessert table featured 16 brightly-colored cakes in all kinds of Halloween-inspired shapes, including a ghost, a snake, a yeti, and two jack-o’-lanterns. Nearby sat plastic cauldrons filled with candy, and a plastic skull and tombstone in between them.
Pastry chef Kynda Lee creates these beautiful, creepy cakes each year.
“I’ve been making cakes for 13 years. I try to do something new every year,” Lee said of her cake designs. “It’s a challenge to make different cakes.”
Lee takes inspiration from other cakes she sees and tries to replicate. Her key ingredients are fondant, chocolate molding clay she makes from scratch, colors she mixes, and her imagination.
“This one has been a challenge,” Lee said, referencing the cake that would become an abominable snowman.
When the cake was finished, she said she was happy with how her challenge turned out. Her favorite cake was shaped like a trick-or-treater in a ghost costume.
“I named this one Boo,” Lee said. “I think he’s cute. I have to have a cute one.”
David Apthorpe, the general manager of Bon Appétit at Hillsdale, said he was pleased with how the cakes turned out.
“They look great,” Apthorpe said. “They’re over-the-top.”
He added that his favorite cake was the abominable snowman.
“These cakes give us the chance to lighten up the mood and break up what we do,” Apthorpe said. “It’s great timing. This is the longest stretch before Thanksgiving, and students have midterms. It’s a good diversion.”
These desserts have traditionally been popular among students. Apthorpe insisted that all 16 cakes would be gone by the end of the day.
Senior Sarah Reinsel selected a slice of red velvet cake that was covered in white frosting, but appeared to have blood dripping down the sides.
“It looks pretty darn good,” Reinsel said.
Like many students, Reinsel said she planned to spend her Halloween studying for midterms. It seems Apthorpe was right about the good timing.
