From Deseret News archives:
Pastry creations are icing on long career
While Webber's art is in creating themed cakes, her father was a graphic artist and leather worker during the heyday of Hollywood westerns.
She makes masterpieces such as the 10 cakes she made recently for a Joseph Smith Sr. family reunion and century celebration of Eldred G. Smith's 100th birthday.
Robert E. Lee Brown created leather goods for Hollywood cowboys who included William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy), John Wayne, Montgomery Clift and others. He died in 2005 at the age of 95 after a Hollywood career that started in 1938.
Webber keeps some of his memorabilia in her family room, including a copy of Hopalong Cassidy's gunbelt, the gunbelt and handgun Clift wore in "Red River" and the holster John Wayne wore in the same film. They share space with a saddle and boots he made Webber's mother, Jolly Brown.
Brown is credited with teaching Wayne his famous swagger, said his daughter. He designed the original lady-with-a-torch logo for Columbus Pictures and in 2000 received a Director's Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was also inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Webber has worked for Brigham Young University Food services for 27 years and is now the pastry chef. She got her start at home, designing an anniversary cake for her parents, who had eloped 25 years earlier. A friend who had taken a class in cake decorating assisted her.
"I enjoyed it so much I bought the tools and a book and taught myself," Webber said.
That was in 1970 when she lived in Monrovia, Calif. She soon found herself designing birthday and wedding cakes for neighbors and friends. A decade later she moved to Utah and was almost immediately hired by BYU.
Two notable cakes Webber has created is a 30-year celebration cake of BYU's Marriott Center and a 200-year anniversary cake honoring Brigham Young's birth.
"I'm pretty proud of that Brigham Young cake," she said. "It weighed 100 pounds and had wagon wheels of gingerbread. Dried wheat and wildflowers adorned the corners. Food-safe sparklers were put on top and lit."
The presentation was made to James Arrington, the local actor representing the Utah colonizer.
The Marriott cake stood 5 feet tall, including its wood base. It was designed and created with three days notice, she said.
For the Smith reunion/birthday celebration she designed a sheet cake for every decade of Eldred G. Smith's life, from 1907-2007. Each highlighted major events.
"It was like writing a book for each decade," she said.
Eldred Smith is patriarch-emeritus for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The reunion included descendants from the families of Hyrum Smith, LDS Church founder Joseph Smith Jr. and Samuel Smith, all brothers and sons of Joseph Smith Sr.
With the many marriages that take place among BYU students, Webber has designed many of their wedding cakes.
She was asked to design a cake representing BYU's Wilkinson Center, but after researching the project with photos and architectural plans the assignment was called off.
"I'm really glad that didn't happen," she said. "I love a challenge as long as I can reach it."
E-mail: rodger@desnews.com
