Holland America Pastry Chefs Share sweet creations During ‘Cake Me Away’

‘Cake Me Away,’ a dessert celebration on Holland America Line’s fleet features pastry chefs showcasing their favorite creations. This new event, debuting around National Cake Day on November 26, 2023, offers over 22 five-layer cakes in 16 delicious flavors. The pastry team has also created mini-jar cakes that will be added to the desserts at Sweet Spot in Lido Market.

“Our pastry team has some of the most talented chefs in the world, and Cake Me Away allows us to bring flavors from their home countries to our guests,” said Michael Stendebach, vice president of food, beverage and guest services at Holland America Line. “The culinary team is always developing new ideas, and Cake Me Away gives them the opportunity to share their favorites and introduce new original cakes for our guests to enjoy.”

MORE ABOUT THE EVENT

‘Cake Me Away’ occurs once during seven-day cruises and multiple times on longer sailings in Lido Market. Guests will indulge in popular cake flavors and creations, such as the Heaven and Hell cake, acombination of angel and devil’s food cakes layered with peanut butter frosting.

MORE ABOUT THE PASTRY CHEFS

At Cake Me Away, 198 pastry chefs and assistant chefs come together, each infusing their local tastes and recipes into the event. Before joining Holland America Line’s fleet, these chefs undergo an exclusive pastry training course offered only by Holland America Line. After completing the training, they join one of the 11 ships in the fleet, where they work as part of a pastry team. On each ship, these teams craft an array of 25-30 different desserts and up to 1,000 cookies per day.

AVAILABLE FLAVORS

Cake Me Away flavors include:

Mille Crepe Cake has layers of cream and crepes.

Heaven and Hell Cake with layers of angel and devil’s food cakes topped with peanut butter frosting.

Concorde Cake is a gluten-free option made from chocolate meringue.

Almond Roca Cake has layers of chocolate cake with chocolate ganache, whipped cream, and homemade almond roca (a hard toffee with chopped nuts and chocolate). 

Sans Rival Cake layers of buttercream, meringue, and chopped cashews.

Carrot Cake with warm spices, chopped nuts, and cream cheese frosting.

Cookies and Cream Cake alternating layers of cake and crushed chocolate cookies.

Crème Brûlée Cake is inspired by the classic French dessert with vanilla cake, creamy custard, and pastry cream.

Mini Cakes in a Jar Flavors:

Black Forest: devil’s food cake layered with kirsch frosting and cherry compote, topped with chocolate shavings and a cherry. 

Carrot Cake: traditional carrot cake layered with cream cheese frosting, topped with toasted and chopped walnuts.

Cookies and Cream: devil’s food cake layered between cream cheese frosting, and Oreo cookies.

Key Lime Pie: key lime filling baked on a graham cracker crust, then topped with Crème Chantilly and candied lime zest.

Red Velvet: layers of red velvet cake, chocolate buttercream, and cream cheese frosting topped with red velvet crumbs and white chocolate shavings.

S’mores: layers of graham cracker crumbs, devil’s food cake crumbs, boiled icing, and chocolate mousse with torched icing.

Strawberry Pavlova: chopped meringue layered with white mousse, fresh strawberries, strawberry sauce, and chopped meringue.

Will you be attending ‘Cake Me Away’? Let us know in the comments!