The Search For ‘The Perfect Cake’ -- Local Baker Rescues Scenes In Netflix Show

“We have an emergency on the set, and we need you to come immediately!” the caller said. 

Brenna Van Tassel never expected a call quite like this. “A cake emergency?” thought the owner of Cake by Brenna in Brewster. The caller was Maria Price, the liaison for Chatham on “The Perfect Couple” set, the Netflix limited series filmed in town last year.  

And the emergency? “The original baker had failed to come through the night before the cake scene was to be filmed,” said Price. “We actually needed multiple cakes. So I threw together some cakes, and brought them in the next day and we tried to frost them. Laura [Foley], bless her heart, showed up with cans of Duncan Hines frosting. But we were out of our league. Someone gave me the number for Cake by Brenna. Brenna came within 35 minutes and literally saved an entire day of filming!”  

“I just packed up my bag of cake tools, and went in to fix the cake,” Van Tassel said. She was there for more than six hours. 

In the film, because of a death the night before the wedding, the nuptials were canceled. When the groom’s brother and sister-in-law decide to eat the cake, the groom-to-be reacts by pushing his brother’s face into the cake. A food fight ensues. 

“I was able to spend hours on-set reconstructing the wedding cake from the cake fight scenes, take after take,” said Van Tassel. 

But because Van Tassel was working under pressure and with someone else's cake, she felt those cakes “were not up to my standards.”

“So I was then lucky enough to finally create a cake that would not be thrown around and [was] used for other scenes in the series.”   

“She was like an angel ascending on the set,” said Price of Van Tassel. “So delightful!” 

“Everyone was so nice,” said Van Tassel. “I became good friends with the prop girls, and we still communicate.” 

Price said executive producer John Starke told her that filming “The Perfect Couple” in Chatham with cast and crew staying here, there and everywhere on the Cape (Price helped some of the Netflix staff find accommodations in Chatham, but many stayed in other towns) that the revenue generated for the Cape was as much as $5 million an episode.  

“I made sure they took good care of Brenna,” Price said. “She saved the day!” 

Van Tassel is now kicking around the idea of offering a “Perfect Couple” wedding cake.  

To order a cake or cupcakes from Cake by Brenna, email info@cakebybrenna.com or visit www.cakesbybrenna.com.