Pastillage Showpiece
Beverly Hotel New York

Pastillage is a mixture of powdered sugar, cornstarch and gelatin. This showpiece is a replica of The Beverly Hotel in New York City, designed by Architect Emory Roth.  Standing almost five feet tall; it was made for the owners' 50th wedding anniversary. To provide details for building, the hotel the owners originally provided a few rough snapshots from a building across the street and from a vantage point at the Waldorf Astoria. 

Needing far more detail than the images could provide I contacted the original architectural firm who informed me that the architectural drawings for the hotel lay in the archives of Columbia University. The school archivists created slides of the original documents which were to fragile to be copied.  The images were projected to the replica size and copied to cardboard templates.  The templates proved to be very useful in visualizing the finished pastillage centerpiece and also for determining the finished size and measurements of the sub-structure.

The structure of the showpiece is effectively comprised of  seven separate pastillage boxes each supported by a cylinder of pastillage running through the center to support itself and the box above it.  The boxes were then overlaid with architectural details cut from pastillage using the cardboard patterns.  When dry, the individual sections were stacked into position and secured in place with a cement of syrup thinned pastillage.  As pastillage tends to dry quickly; a percentage of rolling fondant was added to facilitate increased working time and also for ease of rolling large sheets without cracking.  The Beverly Hotel sign on the side of the hotel was made using royal icing run-in technique.  Complimenting and flanking the white facade of the hotel buffet centerpiece at the event were two colorful pulled sugar and poured sugar 50th Anniversary centerpieces. 

The owners' daughters who were at the party stood by with tears in their eyes and pointed out the rooms at the top were they  lived when they were children.  Afterward, an acrylic case sealed the pastillage hotel allowing it to be displayed in the owners home on their grand piano.  When they built a new home a niche was designed to make a more permanent place for it; where fifteen years later, it resides to this day.