Tom and Caty Johnston of SuzyBeez Bakery serve sweet and traditional art cakes Monday through Saturday in their family business circle in Cypress. The couple won the episode Sugar Rush – The Perfect Illusion through Netflix.
Tom and Caty Johnston of SuzyBeez Bakery serve sweet and traditional art cakes Monday through Saturday in their family business circle in Cypress. The couple won the episode Sugar Rush – The Perfect Illusion through Netflix.
Tom and Caty Johnston at SuzyBeez Bakery serves up creative sweets and custom cakes Monday through Saturday at their family-owned business in Cypress. The couple won Netflix’s Sugar Rush–The Perfect Illusion episode.
Tom and Caty Johnston of SuzyBeez Bakery serve sweet and traditional art cakes Monday through Saturday in their family business circle in Cypress. The couple won the episode Sugar Rush – The Perfect Illusion through Netflix.
Tom and Caty Johnston of SuzyBeez Bakery serve sweet and traditional art cakes Monday through Saturday in their family business circle in Cypress. The couple won the episode Sugar Rush – The Perfect Illusion through Netflix.
Tom and Caty Johnston of SuzyBeez Bakery serve sweet and traditional art cakes Monday through Saturday in their family business circle in Cypress. The couple won the episode Sugar Rush – The Perfect Illusion through Netflix.
Tom and Caty Johnston of SuzyBeez Bakery serve sweet and traditional art cakes Monday through Saturday in their family business circle in Cypress. The couple won the episode Sugar Rush – The Perfect Illusion through Netflix.
Tom and Caty Johnston of SuzyBeez Bakery serve sweet and traditional art cakes Monday through Saturday in their family business circle in Cypress. The couple won the episode Sugar Rush – The Perfect Illusion through Netflix.
It took illusions, interactive witchcraft in their creations and even a levitating cake for a couple from the Cypress area to win the third season, third episode of the Netflix cooking show, “Sugar Rush – The Perfect Illusion”.
Tom and Caty Johnston, who run their circle of relatives, run the Suzybeez Bakery business at 13802 Fleur De Lis Boulevard. at Cypress, he won the first prize of the fast-moving festival between 4 groups of pastry chefs. The show’s host, Hunter March, announced that the pair had inspired judges Candace Nelson and Adriano Zumbo for the $10,000 prize.
The couple has owned Suzybeez for 4 years and was surprised to be invited to participate in the show.
“We were contacted last year via Facebook, but I’m able to have a baby in 3 weeks and there’s no way,” she laughed. She told them to call again the following year, never believing they would ever listen to them again, but they did.
“I guess we were discovered on our social networks,” he said. Having the opportunity to make the exhibition amazing, they sent a written presentation, a video interview and she also had to call a spouse to help her at the exhibition.
“It would be my husband, as he now takes care of most of the pastry in the bakery,” she says.
They discovered in January this year that they would appear in the series, then silence.
“They called us two days before we left for California to be on screen and record in late February,” he said.
The exhibition is a festival with 4 groups of two pastry chefs who are scheduled to complete their task and meet the requirements for the challenge. In round, a team that does not complete the assignment is removed.
In the first round, they were tasked with making a cupcake or mini cake with a challenge of realism or an illusion.
“We made mini terracotta pots with a layered carrot cake inside and a chocolate carrot on top,” she says. The ghost smart enough to advance and escape the elimination.
“You go out to beat the clock and get 3 hours for the first two laps,” he said. “Every time you save in the first two rounds, you can count on the third and final lap if you go.”
The challenge of the circular moment to create something magical and interactive. The demanding situations were drawn from the theme of the show, The Perfect Illusion, and all the missions were based on a magical idea.
“At the time, we made sugar candy brownies containing coffee ice cream in an isomalt dome, so it looked like a magic crystal ball,” he said.
When the judges opened it, they had used cinnamon smoke, so when they opened it, it expelled smoke from the globe.
This creativity earned them the circular of the moment and a selection between $1,500 in money or 15 more minutes in the final circular. They took the money.
The 3rd circular turned the cake and the judges sought to see something extremely magical; the sponge cake had to be one meter high and a component of the sponge cake should be levitating and not touching any other components of the sponge cake.
“It’s something we’ve never used before in cake decoration,” he says.
The manufacturers took the guy who created the magnet trick to teach them how to use the magnets.
“I think he’s from England and showed us all how to use it before the show,” he said. “I told my husband I was guilty, ” laughs.
The trick works by the repulsion force of two magnets. Electromagnets can be very resistant and repel completely, allowing the weight of the top point to remain in place. As there is no friction in place, once it gets in motion, the top point can rotate slowly and will continue to rotate unhindered.
The magnets are hidden inside the amounts of sponge cake and it takes a company hand to place the most sensitive layer in position for you to levitate.
“This component is a genuine challenge. We made a magician’s bag with a multi-level cake coming out of it and two magician friends were throwing tricks. Gold coins, scarves and things like that were on the cake and next to the most sensible hat wizard levitating on the cake,” he said.
They won the total festival with this cake.
She crashed and her husband Tom understood it at first.
“He’s not a decorator, he’s the baker, but he did it perfectly,” he says.
Another credit to Johnston’s team is that they specialize in buttercream.
“I would say that 90% of our cakes are ice cream with melting accents. We get our cakes as elegant as a fondant but with buttercream to the fullest that other people like anyway. The other groups used the maximum of the entire fondant.
They had 3 hours to compete and had accumulated 20 more minutes in the last rounds. It sounds long, but baking a 3-foot cake, cooling, making the icing and fondant, designing and completing the elements takes a long time. They finished with two minutes on the clock.
To cool the cakes, they used amplifiers that are set to -25 degrees.
“You put your cake there and it gets cold in about two minutes,” he says.
They won the first prize of $10,000 plus the $1,500 of the previous round. Cash is collected up to 90 days after the exhibition is broadcast in October.
“We have another baby on the way, so he’ll do it with those expenses and we’ll put some back in the bakery,” he said.
The couple returned home in early March, just in time for the coronavirus pandemic and faced challenges.
They participated in the series going on air, especially when they continued to play the manufacturers and heard something in return.
“We didn’t even sit up until the week before its launch,” he said.
They adapted to the stage turning their business style into street delivery and survived the first few months and are now busier than ever.
Each week, they produce more than 60 traditional cakes and also maintain a shop at the front of the store full of sweets.
The couple bought the business in 2016 and plans to expand to a location in the future.
To watch the episode, move to Sugar Rush from Netflix’s extra sweet season 3 and episode 3, The Perfect Illusion to Watch the Couple’s Victory.