DESIGN

Sweet Talent

In Conversation with Amy Cullifer

BY SARA GAE WATERS | PHOTOS BY RACHEL MAUCIERI

Founder Amy Cullifer fell in love with baking when she was 19

A

n exceptional baker, Amy Cullifer of Amy Cakes comes from a family of creatives. “Both of my great-grandfathers were brilliant painters. My grandfather also painted beautiful landscape paintings of Kansas that remind me of spending summers there as a kid,” said Cullifer, who was born in Kansas and raised in Stillwater. “I do love painting cakes, but I feel my strengths are in sculpting.”

Clearly, she’s found a happy medium, as every cake she produces is a sculptural work of art, with the added bonus of being downright delicious.

How did baking, designing and decorating cakes come into your life?

I took a part-time job in a bakery – reluctantly –at the age of 19. I fell in love with everything about it. I’ve always enjoyed baking. It’s something you do from the heart, to give to friends and family, and it always brings so much joy. I didn’t realize the design part and all the possibilities. I was hooked and never looked back. Here I am, 31 years later, still as excited about what I do as back then.

Is this something you feel that you had in you, or something you trained yourself to be?

I honed my baking skills working with some amazing bakers over the years, and the design part just came naturally. I have taken a few classes from some of my favorite cake designers over the years, as well. Cake decorating is always evolving and has changed so much. I am always up for a challenge and creating new designs with cake.

Where do you find inspiration for designs?

Architecture and fashion are where I look for inspiration. My phone is full of things I see that would make a gorgeous cake. I think I see cake everywhere.

What are the hardest and most rewarding aspects of your business?

One of the hardest things about creating cakes is making sure my vision and my client’s vision is the same. The next would be delivery and transport of the cake, especially big ones in the Oklahoma heat. Cakes are extremely fragile and sensitive to weather – and riding in a car on a bumpy road. So many things can go wrong. It takes nerves of steel to make it happen, and you only get one shot; no backup cakes hanging out at the bakery. The reward of making it to your destination and seeing the happiness it brings far outweighs the stress.

Cake decorating is always evolving and has changed so much. I am always up for a challenge and creating new designs with cake.”

Cullifer fi nds design inspiration in nature, fashion and architecture

Do you have any all-time favorite cakes that you have worked on?

My personal favorite cakes to design are wedding cakes. I love collaborating with my brides, choosing the perfect cake for them and being a part of their love story, in a way. Cake brings a smile to everyone’s face. I enjoy seeing families grow, making cakes for their children and celebrating other milestones with cake. I’ve made so many friends over the years. I feel very blessed, and life sure is sweet. I’m not sure there is one cake I could say was my favorite to make. I love them all.

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A Custom Hideout

The Morings make Norman tree house their ‘forever home’

BY PAULA BURKES PHOTOS BY MEL WILLIS

S

hhh. About a mile east of the University of Oklahoma campus, the home of Alan and Jana Moring perches on the east bank of Bishop Creek, nestled under a hushed canopy of trees.

Alan Moring, a staff architect for OU who custom-designed the home, likes to refer to the residence as a tree house – or, when the trees leaf out, “a hideout.” Built on concrete piers that were sunk 21 feet into strong shale and rise 10 feet above ground, the home is situated toward the northern border of their rectangular three-quarters-of-an acre lot, behind a gate off Brooks Avenue.

A COMMANDING SIGHT

The structure is a commanding sight, with its sharply angled roof, bearing on a steel truss, and glass windows that wrap its perimeter. At night, its eaves pop with color-changing LED lights.

Before you even cross the welcome mat, it’s easy to see why the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects awarded Moring’s creation a 2021 People’s Choice award.

There are two ways up: gently rising stone steps and a steel ramp to ease the delivery of heavy appliances and accommodate the aging hips of their three rescue dogs, a mastiff, pit bull and Australian shepherd, as well as their own joints.

The 1,624-square-foot home – which Alan simplifies as three squares of 26 feet per side – feels more than roomy with an open design and abundant natural light.

It’s far from overpowered by the couple, their dogs and a guest. In fact, the Morings once entertained 50 for a holiday party.

“These days, we’d much rather host people than go out,” said Alan Moring, 54, who’s been working from home since the COVID-19 pandemic and credits his wife for “trusting me to create something we’d want to live in forever.”

VISION FOR THE PROPERTY

The Morings bought the property seven years ago, and finished the house and moved in two years ago.

The last home on the site flooded 15 years ago, when Bishop Creek overflowed. But that didn’t blur Moring’s vision for the property.

“Designers,” he said, “love challenging sites, because they force you into creative solutions.”

It was Jana, he said, who told her husband where to build the house. “Build it here,” she said, spreading her arms just so within the lot’s dished-

ABOVE: Natural light pours into the Moring home, which is perched high amid the trees on the banks of Bishop Creek

RIGHT: In this multi-purpose space, curtains separate the dining table from two sleeping berths for overnight guests

out landscape that includes a 120-year-old ash tree and century-old elm.

Her husband subsequently went through some 60 iterations over the following five years, drawing plans by hand because he feels that they’re more thoughtful than computer-generated designs.

The only interior doors in the home are for the two water closets, and those rooms also are the only ones that have walls that extend to the ceiling.

“There’s no acoustic privacy, so it would be challenging to raise kids in the house,” Moring said. He and Jana have one son, who’s 26 and single and wants to live there someday.

Meanwhile, the couple did plan for possible future grandchildren, adding two adorable, curtained sleeping berths that flank their dining table. They’ve had the neighbor girls, Giorgia and Sophia, over for movie nights and sleepovers.

MATERIAL DECISIONS

Moring chose a natural, economical and “close to maintenance-free” material palette: porcelain

FAR LEFT: Modern furniture, warm colors and natural materials combine beautifully in the interior design

LEFT: Large windows bring the outside in, providing ample sunlight, moonlight and treetop views

BELOW: The design pushes open-concept living to the extreme with only two interior doors

tile that extends throughout the house, balcony and porch, and plywood for the ceiling.

The residence boasts extra insulation in the walls and roofs, energy-efficient windows and a wood-burning stove that heats the whole house, so bills are low, he said.

Meanwhile, they spend a lot of time at the 18-foot kitchen counter with a marble top and custom plywood cabinetry with exposed edges and finger pulls. From the kitchen sink, they can look across the balcony and see the tree-lined creek.

“Mainly, I let him do his thing and served as a sounding board,” said Alan’s longtime friend and professional carpenter Richard Knapp. “On the balcony porch, I did encourage him to open up the cedar railing and forgo the expected posts.”

Knapp also worked with Jana Moring to put the walls of Alan’s closet on casters, so they could be pushed around and collapsed to make space for parties and other gatherings.

NATURE ON DISPLAY

In their bedroom, the couple purposefully put the foot of their bed, rather than the headboard, against the exterior wall, so they – through floor-toceiling windows – can see the wild foxes play, witness the ruckuses of the barred owls and watch the blue herons fly over the creek.

They installed heated floors from their bed to the sink, to the toilet with its built-in bidet, and to a two-headed shower.

The nicest thing about living here?

“The mornings and evenings,” Alan Moring said. “We can experience the changes of the seasons and phases of the moon, with the sunlight and moonlight streaming through the high windows, and long shadows cast by the steel truss.”