UA News

From a wedding cake for Eric Clapton to an Old Main replica the size of an eight-passenger van, Montaño's decadent cakes are edible works of art.

Name
Frank Montaño

Position
Lead Baker, Student Food Service

Number of years at the UA
27

Favorite part about working at the UA
"Working with people, having a lot of friends. When I first started I thought I would be here maybe 10 years, and the years have gone by so fast. When you have fun where you work, time goes by so fast."

---

Hand Frank Montaño a bag of icing and he'll make you a masterpiece.

As The University of Arizona's lead baker and head of the cake department, Montaño makes cakes, cookies, breads, pastries and other desserts for Arizona Student Unions restaurants and shops, as well as catered events.

His forte: cakes, decorated to the nines.

Whether he's baking for a baby shower or a birthday party for a UA employee or a large catered event during graduation season, Montaño prides himself on creating tasty treats that are almost too pretty to eat. 

Once the owner of his own cake shop in Tucson, Montaño has dabbled in cake designs inspired by everything from Disney to the Dallas Cowboys. 

His signature carrot cake is a favorite in many campus eateries.

Near the end of a recent shift, which starts at a dark and early 4 a.m., Montaño took time to talk with Lo Que Pasa about his passion for the sweet stuff. 

You had a Guinness World Record attempt with one of your cakes?
Yeah, I did (a replica of) Old Main (for the UA's 100th birthday celebration in 1985), and we did it to a foot-to-a-quarter-of-an-inch because everything had to be by scale. It took us a couple of weeks. It took us a week to bake it and then a week to put it together and finish it up. ... Everything had to be edible and we had trees on it and everything. It was a white cake, and it was a team of seven or eight people that worked on it. But I was the one that designed it. I worked with the engineers, and they gave me the plans (for the actual Old Main building) and then I went from that. The grounds had to be to exactly what the grounds were – the palm trees, the mesquite trees. ... It was the size of a van where you can fit eight people, and that was just the building. The grounds made it even bigger.

Did that cake get eaten?
Oh yeah, there were not even crumbs left. We had the governor come in and the big shots from the city, the University professors and all the students. Everybody was invited.

How did you get interested in baking?
I got interested in it when I came to this country. I came from Mexico (when I was 15) and I lived with my grandmother, and one day we went to the store and I said, "Hey, Grandma, look at that cake. Can we buy it?" And she said, "No, it's too expensive. We can't buy it. But if you want to, you can try and do it." So I did. ... I lived right across from the old rodeo grounds, and when they used to have the fair they had people demonstrating how to do cakes and roses and stuff like that. I was amazed when I saw this lady doing these (icing) roses. I thought, "I've got to do that." I think it cost me $4 for the little plastic (icing) tips and bags, and I went home and tried to practice. My roses didn't look anything like roses; they were more like cabbages, but I learned. And I started doing it at home for my relatives.

Have you made a lot of cakes for family members?
My first wedding cake was for an uncle of mine. He lived in Mexico, and I traveled with a  four-layer cake all the way down Carbó, Sonora. ... I couldn't afford to buy anything, so I made the cake. At that time I was like 16, 17 years old. ... My sister got married after that and that was a five-tier (cake). ... I have six grandkids, I have four grandsons and two granddaughters, and my next project is for their quinceañera (15th birthday ceremony). One is 14 and the other one is 10 years old, so I've got to start thinking about what I'm going to do.

What was your first professional cake job?
When my second son was born, I had taken my wife to the doctor and I was reading a magazine and it said, "Creative Cakery – Come and see your own cake being decorated." It was at the corner of Campbell and Broadway, so I was maybe three blocks from there, so I told my wife, "You go see the doctor. I'm going to go see this place." Then I went up there and I stood in front of the window. I was looking at all the stuff – he (the owner) had medals (from cake decorating competitions). ... Then his sister came out and said, "Can I help you with something? Would you like to come inside?" I said, "Oh, I'm just looking." She said, "You like to do this work, don't you?" I said, "Yeah, it's beautiful. Who does this? You?" She said, "No, my brother does. Come on in and meet him." So I went in to meet him and they were planning the cake for the grandson of the president of Mexico in Hermosillo, and he says, "Would you like to work with me?" At that time I was working at the mine, but I said I could work in the afternoons with him, and in the nights. He says, "Yeah, because we've got to make this cake, and we need 4,000, 5,000 little roses." ... And he says, "I need somebody to talk Spanish because we're going take this cake to Mexico, and I have to set it up over there and they can't talk English, so I need somebody." So we went.

You eventually owned your own cake shop?
I owned my own business for 39 years. I just closed it up last year. I had a cake shop and a flower shop. It was called Montaño's Cakery and Supplies, and then the other one was Montaño's Flowers. I've made a lot of wedding cakes, I've made cakes for different organizations, hotels, motels and all that. ... I made the cake for Eric Clapton (when) he got married here in Tucson ... I got a call one night and he (a man helping plan the wedding) says, "I need a big cake, about six, seven, eight tiers and we need it by tomorrow morning. ... He never told me who was it for, so I gave him the price of the cake and he paid me cash for it so I made the cake and I took it up there (to the hotel the next day). Come to find out it was (for) a rock ‘n' roll guy.

Is there a cake you're the most proud of?
One of my cousins got married and I made a fantasy cake. We had a big mirror on the bottom and we had two cakes on the sides, then we had a bridge, and in the middle of the bridge there was a bride and a groom. On one side there were two hearts entangled with their initials, and on the other side there were two doves, lovebirds. ... Then I had stairs coming down to an arch made out of a sugar piece, and there was a fountain and a lake and I put flowers (around it) and then I made little swans swimming in the water. That was a very popular cake. After I made it for her everyone wanted that cake.

Have you had any strange requests for custom cakes?
Oh yeah, I did the X-rated cakes (at my shop). I was the only one that did them besides Creative Cakery. Other owners wouldn't do them. ... One time the wife of a reverend asked me to do one of those X-rated cakes. She told me, "My husband is a reverend." I did one like that for one of the chiefs of police too.

What happens on your birthday? Does someone make you a cake?
Yeah, my wife usually.

If you could only eat one dessert for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I love pineapple, like a pineapple cake. It's a white cake with pineapple in the middle. We cut the layers, and outside we put whipped topping or something. Then we put coconut on it and then on the top you can either put raspberries or strawberries or pineapple. That's what I love.

Do you know someone who has an interesting job at the UA? Send his or her name and contact information to lqp@email.arizona.edu for consideration for a future Employee Q&A.