Flathead Valley Community College was the site of a colorful, tasty event on Friday, when baker and confectioner Penelope Jane Orsini showed off the wedding cakes of her culinary arts students.

The cakes – more than a dozen intricately constructed, frosted and decorated works of art – were the culmination of a weeklong crash course in the art of making wedding cakes.

Orsini was impressed with the growth of the students.

“They were pretty darn good,” she said. “Some kept up with me. They could sell these cakes.”

The students are wrapping up an 18-month course as part of the Culinary Institute of Montana, and the guest showing by chef Orsini was just the frosting on the cake.

Orsini said the dedication of the students would take them far in her industry.

“Some of them have been working from 8 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m.,” she said. “That’s well beyond what is required.”

Orsini, a chef from Napa Valley, Calif., is the daughter of Howard Karp, the executive chef and director of the Culinary Institute of Montana.

For the FVCC students, Orsini didn’t give much slack. Not only were they expected to learn the science of cake baking (several not properly constructed cakes collapsed over the course of the week) and decorating, but every cake had to be 100 percent edible.

One student, who had a cake with a resting peacock on top, found a creative way around this.

“I used a raw potato for the body,” she said to a fellow student. “It’s edible. You wouldn’t want to eat it, but you could.”

Orsini used her cake, a red velvet, butter-cream beauty decorated with vines and grapes, during a demonstration on how to properly cut a wedding cake.

Instead of wedges, which could give someone a piece the size of their forearm with some of the bigger cakes, the proper way to cut and serve is in concentric rings in 1-inch by 1-inch pieces.

While students, parents and even the college’s administration got tasty pieces of cake and homemade ice cream, Karp pointed out the Culinary Institute still is accepting students with financial aid up until Aug. 1.

Students take a regular load beside their culinary studies, matching up general education courses with fondant, frosting and stacking cakes.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.