You know Ron Ben-Israel—you've seen him on TV hundreds of times. What you might not know is that he was on the forefront of a wedding cake trend borne somewhat recently: dark-colored wedding cakes.

It was "a big, big revolution" when he developed black fondant for his clients a few years ago. People were struck by the elegance of a wedding cake that was so classic in some ways and so, so not in others. "I can take the regular structure of a cake, tiers sitting one on top of the other, etc., and totally make it unusual and avant grade by changing the color or the texture," Ron tells Delish. He himself is a fan of a gorgeous grey cake, calling them "elegant."

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Chelsea Lupkin

Anyway, that's how we found ourselves in Ron's 13th-floor NYC Garment District cake studio watching him and his team craft a perfect (and perfectly black) wedding cake.

But with Ron, it's not just tiers, buttercream, fondant, and fin—it's all of the aforementioned plus hand-crafted flowers, hand-applied real golden details, and hand-mastered textures. Hours and hours later, he slices it with a machete. A cake-slicing-designated machete, of course.

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Chelsea Lupkin

Find masterpieces like these only at Ron Ben-Israel Cakes in NYC.