Lacey Baker Gains Social Media Fame Through Hyperrealistic Cakes

LACEY, NJ — Luke Vincentini began baking 11 years ago, when his mother asked him to make cupcakes and brownies for a church dinner. The Lacey resident kept baking for those weekly meals, steadily improving his craft with cakes and other desserts.

Since then, Vincentini's cake creations launched him into internet stardom. A glance at his 394,000-follower Instagram page reveals mundane objects, such as a teapot, a steak and a can of soup. But then Vincentini, 23, will put a knife through them, revealing the hyperrealistic cake art he created.

Watch a few below:

It all began with those church creations, and he improved from there.

"Then I started watching shows like ‘Cake Boss’ and ‘Ace of Cakes’ and really just taught myself from there, just playing around in the kitchen a lot," Vincentini told Patch. "And now here we are."

Vincentini decorated cakes at Carlo's Bakery for 2½ years before working independently. He knew social media offered his best chance at success.

"I wanted to do some kind of social series," he said, "and I thought it would be really cool to make a carousel of pictures of random objects. And then the knife goes through it and people are like, ‘Oh my God.’"

Most cakes on Vincentini's Instagram take three or four hours to make, he said. Some take shorter — his latte and log cakes each took about an hour because they had smaller, simpler designs.

Other creations require more time. Vincentini recently took 10 hours to create a cake for NBC (see above).

Vincentini gets plenty of prominent assignments. He makes a living through cake orders, sponsored posts and appearances. But he doesn't currently take online orders though because of logistical difficulties and his large following.

One of his favorite assignments was a cake he made for opening night of Broadway musical "Disaster!" Vincentini made a giant, five-tier cake, representing a different disaster on each tier. The cast and crew enjoyed it at the afterparty.

But it doesn't matter whether the recipient is a loved one, a friend or a member of a Broadway musical or major TV network.

"They’re usually claimed very enthusiastically," he laughed.

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