John Culotta's Fake Cake
Submitted by Michelle Maggs
John Culotta, son of the great cook Margaret Culotta, was a very funny man and relished any opportunity to play a practical joke on one of us Carroccio’s. He taught us how to make this phony cake the summer of 1970 when Tom and Joanne were married (and Christina and Walter). As I recall, Christina and Walter, who were newlyweds at the time, were house-sitting at a beautiful home on Macomb Street, NW. They threw a party in honor of the soon-to-be-married Tom and Joanne. John Culotta offered to bring the cake. We were a little concerned to see that he only brought a standard size 8 inch round cake to serve a crowd of about 50! He reassured us that it was a very special cake and that he had back-up if there wasn’t enough to go around. He ceremoniously requested that Tom and Joanne cut the cake together, sort of like practice before the real wedding cake, and that we all stand around and toast, and watch. The joke came when Tom and Joanne tried to cut through the beautifully decorated, soft, but impossible to cut cake. At first they tried to be cool and composed about the tricky cutting, but eventually realized they had been duped, and we all had a good laugh. I guess you really had to be there. Thankfully, John did have a nice, big delicious sheet cake waiting in the wings.
Here’s how to make a fake cake, if you every want to fake someone out.
Ingredients
Foam pillow forms, round or rectangular
Can of Crisco shortening
Any cake decor you want
Directions
Cut foam into shape of a cake
“Ice” the cake with Crisco, looks lovely
Decorate to your heart’s content and present