Bumblebee Doberge Cake

The age old dilemma of whether to indulge in dessert immediately or save it for later played no small part in this week’s offering, which I admit I devoured upon receipt but have been equally savoring for a long time, waiting to share. It’s a very special piece of cake, which is figuratively nothing of the sort (“a piece of cake”), as one might expect from this artist, who makes the world’s finest, most convolutedly diabolical, wonderfully puzzling confections.

I consider myself extremely lucky to own a few of Perry McDaniel’s amazing creations. He crafts complex puzzle boxes full of unexpected (and unseen!) twists and tricks made from exotic woods using the most intricate and fine detail. He packs so much into the tiniest of objects, it’s hard to fathom and impossible to beat. On top of it all, he enjoys a good sweet, and has become famous for his penchant for pastries.

There’s a tradition that the hosts of an International Puzzle Party be given a nice gift at the close of festivities. Perry was an integral part of the host city team, and had plenty on his full plate to do for the party we held in Houston during the summer of 2024, including his own personal project of crafting a new puzzle box in his cake series for sale, the Red Velvet (a masterpiece!). He must have been influenced by the psychedelics represented in his favorite tie-dye t-shirts when he volunteered to make the host gifts, as well. Hosts are not asked who they might favor for such a gift, which would of course be in bad taste, but personally I would have a very short list, and Perry would be at the top. So it is with distinct honor, and guilty pleasure, that I share the story of this puzzle box with you, as usual, in Perry’s own words.

“Julia Childs once said “A party without cake is really just a meeting”. Whether you are bringing the cake or it is already there makes no difference as long as it is there! A cake simply elevates an occasion. And once that is accepted, the only difficulty today is just getting it there. Who hasn’t hit the brakes just a little too hard knowing that delicate cake in the cargo area of your SUV just slammed against the back of the rear seats? Or tripped when carrying the box up the stairs (at the party location no doubt). It happens. And while transport might be the biggest culprit in party cake fails there were once many more concerns.

In the days before the advent of refrigeration, getting that cake to the party in good order required that it was also fresh. So you bake it today or yesterday and hand deliver right away. But what if you wanted to move that cake several hundred miles or several thousand to the party? Well of course you would need UPS, FedEx or DoorDash but you also needed a cake made with ingredients that would stand the tests of time and temperature. This was the question of the day for the confectioners shop of Jozsef Dobos in Budapest 1884.

Dobos was searching for a way to protect his delicate desserts in a time when refrigeration was almost non-existent. To create a pastry that could be shipped across all of Europe and beyond without sacrificing quality or spoiling. His solution came down to ingredients and the presentation was puzzle box inspiring. A five layered cake, iced with chocolate buttercream and a final glaze of caramel that he named the Dobos Torte. Each of the thin sponge cake layers was baked separately forming a protective crust. The buttercream was a lavish filling used only in France at the time that both elevated and increased the shelf life of the Dobos Torte and the glaze not only moistened the cake but acted to create a protective coating. He introduced his creation to the world in 1885 at the National General Exhibition of Budapest and it went over spectacularly, its innovative structure succeeded in withstanding the tests of time and temperature.

After his retirement in 1906, Jozsef Dobos finally released the well-secreted recipe for his Dobos torte to the Budapest Confectioner’s and Gingerbread Maker’s Chamber of Industry requiring that it must be made available to all who sought it. And in the early 1930’s Dobos’ creation made it to the attention of New Orleans pastry chef Beulah Ledner and through her efforts and her successors, the Gambino’s Bakery, has become the go-to New Orleans birthday treat today.

Beaulah made a few changes to update the cake to New Orleans’ temperature and to modern day standards and changed the name to Doberge Cake (pronounced “Dough Bash” by the locals), but the French sounding name was really just a made up word that has no meaning. The change that caught my eye was the look. Often made as a half chocolate – half lemon cake, it is a striking visual.

I wanted to create a puzzle box that pays homage to this cake and it’s two histories. I settled on the original 5 layers of the Dobos version but went with the half & half Lemon and Chocolate favored by Ledner and Gambino. But most importantly, I found that by substituting wood for the usual cake making ingredients, I could extend the shelf life by hundreds if not thousands of years! The final look of my version also inspired a new name. The Bumblebee Doberge Cake (BDC).

BDC’s design started when I was approached to create a special box for the host Gifts for IPP41 in Houston. The shape and look of the box had already been on my radar so the internals were the main focus as the project began. I have favored the use of Basswood for the main structure and sliders of my boxes for many years so just needed to grab a few boards and get to work. Wouldn’t you know it, nothing in the shop and nothing at my local lumber suppliers so I found myself considering alternative woods for the first time. It is well known that many of the best puzzle boxes feature the use of Japanese Magnolia for the structure and slider components and so it was that I elected to use an American Magnolia lumber that had been in my shop for a couple of decades.

Compared to its Japanese cousin, I found the American Magnolia maintains the slightly green color but includes more prominent grain lines and appears quite a bit harder. I was sure the hardness would lead to problems down the line but time was short so I pressed on with the structure. One pleasant surprise was that the American Magnolia remained remarkably flat across the grain when cut and surface planed to the thin pieces needed. The good news is that I had enough on hand to produce 7 structures, more than needed for the project goal but I was on a roll. The bad news is I can’t seem to locate more for future use.

I had enough Basswood on hand to produce the various sliders so those came next. I found the action between the Basswood Sliders and the Magnolia structure was buttery. Really hope to again locate the ingredients necessary for that magic combination. With sliders complete, I was ready to move on to a few of the bits needed like keys, keyways and brass pins. I devised a simple jig for my Incra Miter Gauge to make cutting the brass easy and repeatable.

Next, I add the skin to the boxes. I used Wenge and Yellowheart to really bring out the “Bumblebee” in this construction and found that by aligning the boxes side by side this bee can actually sting the eyes. Quite an optical effect for sure.

The icing drizzle was the last addition and as usual really brings the design around to the intended look. The design and build of this new box was for the most part seamless and it needed to be because other projects on the bench were competing with it for my time. Unfortunately, like all of my wooden pastry creations, the taste is still a work in progress.”

One final word (or two) of my own is in order for the BDC. Perry is a rather sneaky fellow (of the nicest, kindest and most generous type well known and beloved to us puzzle enthusiasts). Another tradition during an IPP event is to display the collected work of a special artist. We had the unique opportunity to feature Perry’s entire creative puzzle arc, including pieces rarely seen outside of a private collection.

Perry McDaniel puzzles — nothing to see here …

These were on display during the entire event, and there was a particular piece of cake on the shelf no one had seen before, with a cryptic label. There were a lot of puzzles no one had seen before, so what of it? Very sneaky, Perry. I hardly need to mention, although I will, that the puzzle is as brilliant as one might expect, including multiple chambers to discover, very well hidden moves that can be extremely difficult to find, and a dizzying number of steps that weave back and forth in an erratic dance that evokes a certain insect, so as to completely confuse the befuddled solver. These moves are obviously crystal clear to the bumblebee.

Bumblebee cocktail Charles Baker — Bumblebee by Charles H. Baker Jr.

I’m raising my glass to Perry McDaniel in gratitude, thanks and admiration, with a classic cocktail to compliment this classic cake. The drink can be found in the adventurous pages of bon vivant Charles H. Baker’s South American Gentleman’s Companion, c. 1951. Baker led a storied life, traveling the world by land and sea, toting his cocktail making apparatus with him to reaches far across the globe and writing about his adventures in magazines like Esquire and his Gentleman’s Companions, or as he liked to call them, “World Famous Lively Liquid Masterpieces from Greater and Lesser Parts of Orient and Occident, and the South Seas.”

The cocktail plays off the classic daiquiri template of rum, lime and sugar syrup, but exchanges the sugar for honey, which lends a richness of flavor and fullness to the texture. Add in the egg white for a frothy foam and more texture and you’ve got an entirely different cocktail without changing very much. Which goes to show that bartenders were “inventing” new cocktails by riffing on old ones back in the day just like we do now. What’s old is new and vice versa. Cheers!

Bumblebee Doberge Cake puzzle by Perry McDaniel and Bumblebee cocktail by Charles Baker — pollinate this pair

Bumblebee by Charles H. Baker, Jr.

1 ½ oz aged Jamaican rum (Appleton Estate V/X)

½ oz funky Jamaican rum (Smith and Cross)

¾ oz lime

1 oz honey syrup (1:1)

½ oz egg white

Shake ingredients without ice to froth then with ice to chill. Strain into a coup and garnish with Angostura bitters.

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