On the left is a photo of the cake commissioned for Trump’s “Salute to Our Troops” Inaugural Ball on Friday night. It appears nearly identical to the cake Duff Goldman made for Obama’s 2013 inaugural ball, pictured on the right.
After the TV news stations started showing video of Trump’s inaugural balls on Friday, Jan. 20, I heard someone say that celebrity baker Duff Goldman, executive chef at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore and star of numerous Food Network shows, was claiming that whoever had baked the cake for Trump’s inauguration had stolen the design from the cake he made for President Obama’s 2013 inauguration.
He tweeted: “The cake on the left is the one I made for President Obama’s inauguration 4 years ago. The one on the right is Trumps. I didn’t make it,” and included an image (above) with side-by-side photos of the two cakes.
My first thought was, well, how many different ways can you design a cake for an inauguration? There will always be SOME similarities, right? But then I saw the side-by-side comparison with a photo of Duff’s cake for Obama and the cake for Trump, and … . Um, yeah. It looks pretty much like an exact replica.
New York Daily News posted this story about CakeGate on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 21.
What a shitty thing for a baker to do, right?
Then more of the story came out.
Tiffany MacIsaac, owner of Buttercream Bakeshop in Washington, D.C., explained that “a client” — who she refused to name — had commissioned her bakery to replicate Goldman’s 2013 Obama cake for Trump’s 2017 “Salute to Our Troops” inaugural ball. She said, according to the UK’s Daily Mail, that her employees tried to convince the client to go with a cake inspired by Goldman’s creation, but the client insisted that they replicate Goldman’s cake because it was perfect.
MacIsaac said Saturday via Twitter: “While we most love creating original designs, when we are asked to replicate someone else’s work we are thrilled when it is a masterpiece like this one. @duff_goldman originally created this for Obama’s inauguration 4 years ago and this years committee commissioned us to re-create it.”
And then came the “best part”: MacIsaac said via Twitter that the profits from making the cake are being donated to the D.C.-based LGBT rights organization Human Rights Campaign: “Best part is all the profits are being donated to @humanrightscampaign, one of our favorite charities who we have loved working with over the years. Because basic human rights are something every man, woman and child~ straight, gay or the rainbow in between~ deserve!”
