Baking comes ‘Easy AS Cake’ for Swampscott High sophomore

SWAMPSCOTT – Austin Sagan bakes and decorates an average of two cakes a week in his independent home business, and he donates a quarter of his proceeds to charity.And Sagan, 15, does it after his school week ends.”I usually do it on Friday nights, they always have to be baked no more than two nights before the event,” Sagan said Thursday. “This year has been busier than in the past, but it’s still never been a major issue in interfering with anything else.”His business is called “Easy AS Cake,” and the AS stands for Austin Sagan.Sagan will be teaching other teens the art of cake and dessert decorating by hosting a class at the Swampscott Public Library on Feb. 8.”My goal is to have programs that emphasize creativity,” said Young Adult Librarian Sandy Moltz. “And this is another activity that is creative.”Sagan, a sophomore at Swampscott High School, said he can’t remember exactly when he started baking.But his mother, Julie Sagan, remembers the two of them working on banana bread in the kitchen when he was 2 or 3.”I used to teach him math with measuring cups,” Julie Sagan recalled. “That’s how it all started. It gave us an activity to do and an opportunity to learn something.”But her son learned more than math.He also learned to bake cakes that became in-demand among family and friends.Following a trip to North Shore Children’s Hospital in Salem while he was in fifth-grade for an emergency appendectomy, Sagan took money he made from baking to purchase videos, books and toys for children at the hospital, his mother said. He delivered the toys along with a big cake for the nurses.Sagan has since baked cakes to help raise $1,500 for Chai Lifeline as a community-service project for his Bar Mitzvah. He has also donated proceeds from his business to the Special Olympics of Massachusetts and the Great American Bake Sale, all of which is detailed on his blog, Austin’s Food Blog.The focus on decorating, however, is a relatively new interest, Sagan said.He credited his Middle School Principal Ralph Watson with sparking the interest when Watson held an after-school decorating and baking club.Sagan said he plans to soon start a similar club at the High School.Sagan said he favors decorating that looks “simple and elegant.” His signature decorations are frosting roses, he said, which pretty much appear on every cake he makes. He said he tries to avoid the “construction cakes” that are popular on television shows such as “Cake Boss.””Fifty percent of a (constructed) cake is not cake – it’s piping or wood,” he explained. “If you’re doing Sponge Bob, I could draw Sponge Bob.”At the library, he said he will be teaching other teens to do basic frosting techniques, such as the “classic swirl,” leaves and borders. The Friends of the Library will be providing cookies and cupcakes and decorating materials.And like the name of his business suggests, he said people will be surprised with how easy decorating cakes can be.”You definitely have to get the hang of it and it will take a couple of times,” Sagan acknowledged. “But most people catch on pretty quickly.”He admitted though, that he gets some help from his family.”I trained my mom to do writing because she has much better handwriting,” he said. “Dad gets to lick the beaters and frosting – of course after we’re finished because that would (otherwise) be unsanitary.”Cyrus Moulton can be reached at [email protected].