LeBron James Controversy: The King Disses Boca Baker’s Gold-Covered Birthday Cake!

Posted by Jose Lambiet , January 2, 2012 Print

Passion for Pastry's Alethea Hickman with LeBron James' cake (click on the Mike Jachles photo for more)

A tale of two cakes at Miami Heat superstar LeBron James‘ 27th birthday party is stirring up controversy.

The cake that got all the publicity, by Miami's Divine Delicacies (Click on the photo for more)

Passion for Pastry owner Alethea Hickman, a well-known Boca Raton baker, is downright pissed off!

The $3,000-birthday cake she was asked to deliver to James’ New Year’s Eve party at the Shelborne South Beach hotel in Miami Beach – free of charge as part of a “sponsorship deal” – supposedly wasn’t fit for the king!

– Click here for the photos of the cake that got dissed

“It was a great cake,” Hickman said. “I could’ve blown it off because I had so much work with the holidays, but I came through at the last minute. I don’t even known what they did with it at this point. They have no respect.”

Two days before the Miami Beach fiesta for 50-plus that included Heat teammates Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Juwan Howard, Hickman tells me she received a frantic, all-in-caps email from Samantha Rosen, the Shelborne‘s marketing director.

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“URGENT!,” the email read. “NEED CAKE FOR LEBRON JAMES BIRTHDAY THAT WILL BE HOSTED AT THE SHELBORNE HOTEL BY DWADE, GAB UNION AND HEAT TEAMMATES.”

There was a catch: Hickman couldn’t charge anything, simply because James wouldn’t pay for it — never mind that James is in his second year of a $100 million-contract with the Heat!

In exchange, however, Rosen promised free publicity for Hickman’s Passion for Pastry: Photos of the cake would be distributed widely to the press and twittered with the name of her business prominently mentioned! Rosen didn’t return calls for comment but her boss Jared Galbut, the newly-redesigned Shelborne‘s managing principal, confirmed the deal today.

Miami Heat star LeBron James pops the question to high school sweetheart Savannah Brinson on New Year's Eve (Via Twitter)

Hickman hurridly designed a five-tiered white cake with french vanilla buttercream covered in fondant in Miami Heat red and topped with a crown made of real edible gold dust and decorated with tiny edible basketballs. A golden crown on the top also was edible.

“I’ve made cakes for celebrities like (Miami Dolphins legend) Dan Marino and (Boston Red Sox owner) John Henry,” she said. “I figured it couldn’t hurt to do one for LeBron James.”

Not so fast!

When details of the birthday party started to spread Sunday morning, the photos that appeared online were photos of a different cake!

This one, a five-tiered rum cake with with gold lion heads and giant LJ initials, was made by Miami’s Divine Delicacies.

And the exposure was worldwide! So happens that James also announced his engagement to high school sweetheart Savannah Brinson at the same wingding!

Hickman, meanwhile, said she was promised her cake would be the one getting the sugar.

“I’m beyond mad,” she said. “I had to hire extra people to be able to make it. They should pay for my cake no matter what they did with it.”

For more:

– Miami Heat star LeBron James engaged to high school sweetheart Savannah Brinson

Miami Palm Beach Photos Alethea Hickman, birthday cake, Chris Bosh, Divine Delicacies, Dwayne Wade, engagement, Gabrielle Union, Gossip Extra, James' 27th birthday, Jose Lambiet, LeBron James, Miami Beach, Miami Heat, National Basketball Association, NBA, Passion for Pastry, Savannah Brinson, Shelborne Hotel

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Tammy, 1 year ago Reply

That CAke it’s sooooo ugly!
Why would they take that cake out to him? It looks like a little kid made it lol.
The other one creates by Divine Delicacies Custom Cakes is more royalty looking and classy. Besides who is this women anyways? Lol
Divine Delicacies Have always been known for creating all of the Celebrity cakes in Miami, specially the Miami heat players.

Can’t believe she did this free cake to try to get some spotlight. Not even free the cake got to the Hands on Lebron James!
But nice try!!

Glad Lebron James Called DD cakes for back up!!
Jorgeheat, 1 year ago Reply

Eww why would he eat such an ugly cake. The cake he was presented with was an amazing cake. Besides its his birthday and I’ve always know he gets all the cakes done by divine delicacies. Why is this women begging for attention because her ugly ass cake got dissed!
Andres305, 1 year ago Reply

EVEN THE HOTEL SAYS IT’S “HORRIBLE” SO HAPPY TO HEAR DIVINE DELICACIES SAVED THE NIGHT!
THEY DID GOOD IN ORDERING A CAKE FROM MIAMI BAKERY. MAYBE THE HOTEL JUST SHOULDNT HAVE ORDER A CAKE WIHOUT EVEN KNOWING LEBRON ALWAYS ORDERES HIS OWN CAKES
KeishaJones, 1 year ago Reply

That cakes Mrs.Hickman did looked like a school project compared to the one DD did.
LeBron James Pisses Off Cake Baker for His 27th BDay Bash | Trending News, 1 year ago Reply

[...] *LeBron James is in the middle of some cake madness. he ordered two cakes for his 27th birthday bash but ended up pissing off one of the bakers, according to Gossip Extra. [...]
Cakes, 1 year ago Reply

Honestly, those offensive comments seem to be written by the trash that works at DD cakes. They are both well made cakes, only completely different styles. Albeit gaudy, the one from DD is nicer, in my opinion. But as professionals, the people over at DD should not berate fellow cake bakers. You really should be ashamed of yourself.