Cakes · Watercolor · 3D printing

From Kitchen
to Canvas
to Code.

Pastry Kitchen Designs is one maker’s workshop, and it began with cake. Twenty-five years of custom wedding and celebration cakes taught a way of working: listen closely, sketch before committing, and deliver on the day. That approach now carries into watercolor, 3D printing and digital design.

See the cakes Read the story
Pastry Kitchen Designs logo: a copper whisk, pastry brush and teal mixer behind hand-lettered script

One workshop, three mediums

Pencil and watercolor sketch of a four-tier wedding cake with blue sugar poppies
01

Kitchen

Custom wedding and celebration cakes, each designed from a client consultation and a sketch.
Watercolor of a Tuscan hillside villa with a winding road and red poppies
02

Canvas

Watercolor landscapes and studies, the same eye for color and composition in a different medium.
Rendering of a 3D printer printing the characters 3D on a blue bed
03

Code

3D-printed objects and digital builds, including this site.

01 · The Kitchen

Twenty-five years of cakes, one at a time.

Every cake here started as a conversation about the venue, the palette, the guest count, and the story behind the day. The Pastry Kitchen is no longer taking orders, so this is the archive.

How every cake was made

Sketch first. Then sugar.

  1. 01

    Consult

    Every cake began with the client: the vision, the venue, the colors, the formality, and the story they wanted the cake to tell.

  2. 02

    Sketch

    Several design directions went on paper and were reviewed together. Nothing went into production until the client had signed off.

  3. 03

    Build

    Structure, flavor, decoration and transport were all planned backward from a date that couldn’t move.

  4. 04

    Deliver

    Delivery was the moment of truth. Afterward came an honest review of what worked and what to do better next time.

Watercolor of a Tuscan hillside villa with a winding road, cypress trees and red poppies
Tuscan hillside · watercolor

02 · The Canvas

Color, without the buttercream.

Choosing a palette for a wedding cake and choosing one for a landscape turn out to be much the same job. The Canvas holds watercolor landscapes and studies, and a print shop is planned.

More pieces coming soon.

Rendering of a 3D printer printing the characters 3D
3D printing · digital fabrication

03 · The Code

Structure you can hold.

A five-tier cake has to stand up, and so does a 3D-printed part or a website. The Code covers 3D-printed objects, digital fabrication, and web work like the page you’re reading, which was hand-built rather than made from a template.

The workshop is always printing something.

The Story

Before I knew what a design system was, I was building one.

I’m David R. Bailey. I’ve been designing and delivering custom cakes for more than 25 years, and in 2009 I started The Pastry Kitchen, making cakes for weddings, birthdays and every kind of celebration. I trained at Sullivan University in Louisville, Kentucky, where I earned an A.S. in Baking & Pastry Arts with honors and a Silver Medal.

That work taught me that the client’s first request is never the whole picture, that you sketch before you commit, and that a deadline is a deadline. Today I work as a UX/UI designer and technologist, and Pastry Kitchen Designs is where the making continues.

Visit davidrbailey.com
25+
Years of custom cakes
Silver
Medalist, Sullivan University
A.S.
Baking & Pastry Arts, with honors
3
Mediums: kitchen, canvas, code

Thanks for stopping by.

Let’s make something.

The Pastry Kitchen isn’t taking cake orders anymore, but I’m glad to hear from you about design work, collaborations, or just to talk cake.

Get in touch See the UX portfolio