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BC-EROTICCAKES:MI Hot cakes: Erotic baked goods come out from behind the counter By Madeleine Marr McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) MIAMI _ Pastry-arts degree in hand, ready to take a mid-life plunge and open a Miami Beach, Fla., bakery, Mara Tirado knew she needed a niche.
Wedding cakes were out.
``Down here there are like five names that have the industry sewn up,'' Tirado says. ``Even my sister ordered from Ana Paz when she got married.''
She tried cheesecakes, but didn't find them much of a creative outlet.
Then, about six months ago, a gay acquaintance asked her to make an X-rated gag cake for a birthday party. She complied, adapting the neck of a guitar-shaped cake mold to the task.
``I loved the reception it got . . . the laughter, the joking,'' says the baby-faced baker. ``It was like being the life of the party without being invited to the party.''
Erotic bakeries aren't hard to find in hipster cities like Seattle, San Francisco and of course, New York. But good luck on your Google searches in southern Florida.
``It's highly unusual for a bakery to blatantly come out and say they make sexy cakes,'' says Aaron (no last name, please), corporate manager for the Erotic Bakery of NY. ``You don't want grandmothers ordering their jelly doughnuts next to someone getting a pastry with a bleep on it.''
Tirado, however, has been out and proud since she launched Risque Business after receiving an associate degree from Johnson & Wales University in May.
Her philosophy: Their loss is her gain.
``This is a party town,'' says Tirado, 51. ``Between South Beach and bachelorette parties and the Wilton Manors crowd, there really is no limit.''
Slowly, customer traffic has been mounting, thanks in part to her visit in June to the EXXXOTICA show at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The 18-and-older event featured adult-movie star appearances, sex toys and a randy art display.
Tirado brought her business cards and a ``look book'' of her raciest treats _ but, alas, forgot her glasses.
``I'm almost blind,'' she says. ``And here I was walking around all these half naked people practically clueless!''
Is that a blush?
``I'm not a porno person, you see,'' she says earnestly.
``This has all been an education for me.''
Homework has included adult magazines, videos and Web sites.
``My jaw was dropping open, but for art's sake I had to see what was out there _ and to see what was acceptable.''
The business plan scandalized her 19-year-old son, who came home from college to find centerfolds on the coffee table.
``He's like, `Mom, get this porn out of the house!'''
Her cozy, pink bakery-cafe is in the Nirvana Spa in the basement of the Howard Johnson's at Collins Avenue and 89th Street. It has room for just a few stools and a counter where she serves coffee (the kitchen is behind a curtain).
Tirado has filled albums with photos of her work, much of it only mildly titillating. Not even the Church Lady would take offense at ``The Jacuzzi,'' a hot tub built with pirouette cookies in which two marzipan couples soak in blue piping-gel ``water.'' Another no biggie: a C-cup with ``Breast Wishes'' squiggled below.
Flip a few pages, though, and it's anatomy class all over again.
How far will she go?
``I have no problem with various positions, fetishes, homosexuality, transgender _ is that what it's called? _ or anything like that,'' she says. ``Anything fun between consenting adults is fine; just nothing illegal, degrading or copyrighted.''
Fetishes? Oh dear. That may explain why Tirado's landlord has asked her to keep the Risque Business window display PG-13 and send customers on their way with purchases in closed boxes. HoJo's is a family hotel, after all.
So the window holds just two faves: a well-endowed male in skivvies and a bust covered with a Janet Jackson-type negligee.
``I modeled them after Pamela Anderson and Dolly Parton,'' Tirado says with a guffaw.
She actually is quite the giggler.
``You have to have a sense of humor to do this.''
Traffic is a mix of those in the know and curious spa customers. Tirado spotted the for-rent sign while getting her hair done at Nirvana.
So far, business has been decent, but it's not just because of the salacious decorating. The cakes themselves are scrumptious _ moist, rich and buttery. The hottest seller: a carrot cake loaded with golden raisins, pineapple and walnuts.
Also seductive: white layer cake with ganache, a silky mixture of Belgian chocolate and heavy cream; yellow cake with a fresh-strawberry filling, and a creamily divine almond cake with amaretto frosting.
Tirado discovered her passion for pastry helping mom bake in their Bronx, N.Y., home, but ended up studying science at Bronx Community College. She had a daughter, Miranda, at 22, and was working as a 911 dispatcher when she met James Lee in 1979.
They married five years later and moved to the Poconos, where making cupcakes for her son's classmates and neighbors' birthday parties left her itching for more. Though she loved the maternal role, it was time to get moving.
Tirado opened Heaven Lee Custom Cakes _ ``straight, traditional stuff'' _ in 1994, and soon earned a baking certificate at Peter Kump's cooking school (now the Institute of Culinary Education) in New York. She got to meet pastry chef Jacques Torres of Le Cirque fame when she was chosen to appear on a Lifetime Television cooking segment in 1997. Mr. Chocolate taught her how to make pulled-sugar decorations. A dream fulfilled.
Tirado's marriage fizzled in 1999, and she relocated to Miami, where her mom had settled. She and the ex remain friendly; on this day, Lee is at the bakery, cheerfully patching a hole in the wall. He also helped fund the new venture.Any new men in her life?
``As soon as they find out what I do for a living, they start acting like 12-year-old boys and want to skip the courting part,'' she says with a sniff. ``A hazard of the profession, I guess.'' ___ DETAILS Risque Business Bakery & Cafe, 8701 Collins Ave., Miami Beach (in the Nirvana Spa below the Howard Johnson Hotel; enter on the south side). Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Contact: 305-866-2866, risquebusinessbakeryandcafe.com. Price Range: Sheet cakes from $25 (7 by 11 inches) to $100 (14 by 22 inches). Wedding cakes for 100 guests from $300 (buttercream icing) to $500 (fondant). FYI: More sources of erotic baked goods, sold via franchise with Erotic Bakery of NY, are available at www.cakes3.com or 866-396-8429. ___ (c) 2006, The Miami Herald. Visit The Miami Herald Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.herald.com/ Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. _____ PHOTOS
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