These Flower Cakes are Love at First Bite

South African Robyn Groenewald has taken baking art to a new level with her cupcake and cake designs that look too good to eat. Well, almost, as it’s just natural to want to dive into the colorful butter cream designs that could just as easily be a bouquet of flowers.

In 2022, she officially launched Bohemian Robsidy and started piping the frosting and flowers. As a graduate of Escoffier Culinary School with special emphasis on learning the business component, she explained, “I had been making mostly birthday cakes with a lot of fondant to create kids’ cakes and occasionally used chocolate ganache for adult cakes; but during COVID, I saw someone creating butter cream flowers and making it look like a bouquet of flowers, and thought it was such a clever idea … I needed to learn piping flowers and started watching online tutorials.”

Groenewald classifies herself as a “one-woman show” with part-time help from Epstein School teacher Robyn Goldstein who assists at farmer’s markets, workshops, with delivering and boxing large orders, and with wedding cakes … in addition to Groenewald’s mother. Besides being an” extra set of hands,” Goldstein makes the specialized numbers and letters.

Groenewald recalled, “Mom, who of course taught me to bake as a little girl, is always willing to help.”

Groenewald’s husband came up with the name, Bohemian Robsidy, which is a play on the original 1975 song by Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and her name Robyn. She laughed and said, “We have moved around a bit and are both in the arts making us a little bohemian.”

All orders are custom-made, as she doesn’t hold any standard stock. She allows customers to pick their colors and depending on the range they select, they can choose flowers as well. She also makes custom cakes. The most elaborate to date must be a Porsche car cake she made for a 70th birthday in early 2025.

A great deal of engineering goes into custom designing. She added, “My process for making elaborate cakes is to get a good handle on the proportions. In the case of the Porsche design, I bought a miniature toy of the model, and then I printed out pictures of various angles of the car. I also printed out the silhouette in the size I was going for, so when I started sculpting the cake I used the printouts as a guide.”

She also does special menus for holidays, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and more. The most popular item is a deluxe 12 cupcake bouquet that sells for $80, but Robyn says there are a lot of close seconds.

Bohemian Rhobsidy uses real butter in cakes and eggs in the vanilla buttermilk cake. She also offers gluten-free, dairy-free, or vegan cakes. Their most popular cupcake flavors are vanilla and chocolate, and offer other flavors like lemon, strawberry, and poppyseed. Inside the cakes are the same flavors, but with fillings like raspberry compote, salted caramel, and cinnamon custard.

Groenewald works out of her home and is considering finding a retail space when she can balance family life. She stated, “I’m sure I will reach a point where I’ll be able to open a store and look forward to that in time.”

Although Robyn has always enjoyed baking, market research was her career in South Africa.

Bohemian Rhobsidy doesn’t ship, as the delicacies must be kept cold, and the piped flower cupcakes are “simply too delicate.” Bohemian Rhobsidy provided the centerpieces for the Breman Auxiliary lunch at Temple Sinai on April 29.

Goldstein concluded, “I love working with Robyn. She is the kindest, most talented human I know. I do love teaching at Epstein, but I also love when I get to work with Robyn and get creative. And whenever I order cupcakes for my colleagues at school, they are always the talk of the day!”

The two Robyns are neighbors, and the families hang out all the time when they’re not piping flowers.

For more information, please visit bohemianrobsidy.com or email bohemian.robsidy@gmail.com or call 404-661-6096.