Juan Arache is a neighbor of mine who teaches cake decorating at his shop here in Sunnyside,at the Sugar Room. My wife first told me about his store one day and payed for a decorating class for me to attend along with several chatty women, I was the only male student of course ! The class was based on the Wilton decorating method with a lot of input and experience from Juan's years of cake decorating as well as his secret weapon, the over the top Dominican cake which made for constant gaggle amongst my fellow classmates. You see the Dominican cake is the rage here in New York, amongst office parties and has even hit the Anglo's for a loop. The cake is sold by the pound (a lost in translation sort of thing, which Juan explains), and is a rich pound cake and Juan knowing full well everyone wants to
make it rather than pay for it put it in his curriculum as an incentive to join! For a while I wanted to speak to this soft spoken and very dedicated craftsman, he follows the old school traditions of using his hands and heart to create the perfectly decorated cake for any occasion! Juan is also active in his community contributing weekly in El Diario, where he can introduce flavors of the Latin American pantry while living in the American perspective.
