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‘Trump’ cake creator says she made one of Clinton, too

Melissa Alt, a 24-year-old from New Jersey, made cakes of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton for election night.Melissa Alt Cakes

It took Melissa Alt 50 hours to complete a large cake in the likeness of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as a gift on election night.

And it took the Internet all of 45 minutes to take down the creative confection with crude jokes.

After Jason Volack, ABC News’ national assignment editor, shared on Twitter a picture of the cake being wheeled toward Trump Tower Tuesday afternoon, people on social media started comparing it to other things.

Some said the cake, which shows Trump with a despondent look on his face, resembled the Tom Brady court drawing that in August, during the “DeflateGate” trial, was harshly criticized online and became a running joke.

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Others said it looked like a butter bust of actor John Stamos, or Christopher Walken if he had played the presidential candidate in a biopic.

Alt, a 24-year-old from New Jersey and owner of Melissa Alt Cakes, hadn’t seen the stream of comments flooding Twitter after the cake was rolled toward Trump Tower. But she told the Globe during a brief telephone interview that she put a lot of time into making the celebratory food item, and the look was intentional.

“Honestly, I was trying to capture Trump in the images I took of him from the Internet, and just worked from them,” she said.

Alt said she made two cakes for election night: one to deliver to Trump’s headquarters as a surprise, and another for a private client supporting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The food artist teased out pictures of the two cakes on Instagram this week, before the big reveal in New York City.

“Hillary was an order, and then we decided to do Trump as well,” she said. “I saw it as a good opportunity.”

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Alt said the heads of each cake are made out of modeling chocolate, and the bottoms of each food sculpture are formed by cake with fondant on top. Fondant is a sugar-paste that can be easily rolled and molded. The details on the cakes are drawn on using a special edible paint, mixed with vodka.

The Trump cake didn’t stay long at Trump Tower Tuesday, and was whisked away, Alt said, to the candidate’s election night party at the New York Hilton Midtown, in Manhattan.

Alt wouldn’t divulge who she was voting for, but she said if her cake ends up at Trump’s election rally, she hopes he poses next to it.

“Hopefully we will get a picture of Trump with the cake,” she said. “Or maybe him eating the cake.”


Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @steveannear.