It was a Friday afternoon in 1992. Raven Patrick De’Sean Dennis III was moving about his New York apartment, preparing to host a Sunday dinner for a choir from Benedict College. Then the telephone rang.
An executive chef named Conrad pleaded with Dennis — known as Cake Man Raven — to bake a strawberry shortcake for his boss’ 50th birthday celebration. Dennis, swamped with preparations for 60 out-of-town dinner guests, declined. Still, Conrad continued to plead his case and insisted that Dennis deliver the cake personally. Ultimately, Dennis capitulated.
When he arrived at the party, Dennis expected to hand off the cake then bolt back to Harlem to entertain his guests. But Conrad’s boss — the guest of honor — wanted to meet him.
“It looked like a statesman dinner was being held there. The tables were long enough to seat 25 people, so I said to Conrad, ‘Who is this that I’m meeting?’ He said, ‘He’s coming downstairs right now.’ When I turned around it was Bill Cosby.”
Cosby’s wife, Camille, had read about Dennis in a magazine article while awaiting a flight to Fiji a few days earlier. Once she landed, she called back to the states to order one of Dennis’ famous desserts. “Mr. Cosby said to me, ‘Any man that’s got my wife calling me from another island, looking for a cake, is someone I need to find out about.” What Cosby and other clients have discovered is a Southern-bred pastry chef whose tasty treats attract customers from far and wide.
After operating for more than 11 years out of his Harlem apartment, Dennis opened his Brooklyn-based bakery, Cake Man Raven Confectionery (www.cakemanraven.com), in 2000. Business has been so good that Dennis may be forced to move to a larger location. Part of the experience of visiting his bakery is the line, which is more like a congregation. In such close quarters, customers become familiar. They joke, talk, and guard their position around the L-shaped display.
Although the 15-employee business has just two ovens for baking and tight quarters that don’t allow for multiple cakes to be prepared, the product is a huge hit. As many as 25 customers cram into the 400-square-foot space, waiting sometimes as long as an hour for confectionary treats that include everything from a mouth-watering red velvet cake to 7Up pound cake.
Dennis, 38, has to limit his red velvet cake to four slices per customer so as not to exhaust his supply. “In the beginning we would go through one cake a day. Now, we go through 60 to 70 cakes in a shift and fill 40 orders a day during the weekend,” he says. The cost of Dennis’ custom creations can run anywhere from $400 for a cake that serves 25 to $40,000 for a colossal confection that feeds 3,000 or more. He also offers a more modestly priced menu that includes plain, yellow, pound, and red velvet cakes that cost $5 a piece; pies for $18, and whole cakes for $50. Revenues for Cake Man Raven Confectionery have grown from $250,000 in 2004 to $500,000 in 2005.
Over the years, thousands of customers have challenged Dennis to defy the laws of traditional baking etiquette to create confections that are as pleasing
to the eye as they are to the palette. And he hasn’t disappointed. When Patti LaBelle opened her cabaret theater, Chez LaBelle, in 1994, Dennis designed a 6-foot purple and gold cake adorned with a jewelry box, a globe to represent the singer’s travels, a piano, shoes, and musical notes. For singer Mary J. Blige’s 33rd birthday, Dennis constructed a confection that represented her style and achievements. The pastry featured edible replicas of a CD, a Dolce & Gabbana shopping bag, and a baby to symbolize the rebirth of Blige’s music. And for Aaron Reid’s 16th birthday in 2005, Dennis made a 5-foot replica of the birthday boy, leaving music producer dad L.A. Reid in awe.Cake Man Raven’s client roster reads like the guest list at a Grammy party. Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and Stevie Wonder have requested his works of art. Columbia University commissioned him to create an edible replica of one of the campus libraries for the school’s 250th birthday. The 13-foot red velvet cake was coated with cream cheese frosting and took four months to plan, four days to bake, and a tractor trailer to haul it into Manhattan.
Dennis also created a 7,000-pound wedding cake to help launch the second season of WE network’s reality TV show Bridezillas. In the middle of Times Square, brides-to-be tore through the 20-foot cake in search of a box that
contained a $50,000 check. It took 10,000 eggs, 400 pounds of flour, 500 pounds of butter, and 40 gallons of milk. And when the Brooklyn Bridge turned 120, the master baker cooked up a 7-foot version, complete with water running underneath. It took five days to assemble and 22 hours to decorate.Looking to the Future
Dennis shares his talent with young African Americans by speaking at various schools about working in the culinary field. He chauffeurs groups of kids to California and Atlantic City for industry conventions and opens his bakery doors to anyone serious about learning the craft. “I’ve always tried to keep young people from being complacent and thinking that they are going to make $8 an hour. I want them to see that there is more than what is right in front of them,” he says.
In November, Dennis will celebrate 25 years in the business. He has a cookbook due the same month and he plans to travel to London to hold a baking workshop. “As long as I’ve got an oven, counter space, and air in my body,” he says, “I’m going to bake.”