Celebrity Cake-Maker Sylvia Weinstock on What She Learned in the Suburbs

The cake maven honed her baking and business skills over 30 years in the suburbs—but decided she was happier in the city

Sylvia Weinstock, 85, is founder of Sylvia Weinstock Cakes, a world-wide maker of elaborate wedding cakes. She spoke with reporter Marc Myers.

For nearly 30 years, my husband, Ben, and I lived in the suburbs of New York. Back in the early 1950s, when we first moved to Massapequa, much of the area was farmland that had just started to be developed. We lived a classic suburban lifestyle, except Ben and I weren't true suburbanites. It took us until 1980 to figure that out.