NEW YORK – When you look at Lana’s cakes, you think you are at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, with its inconceivable collections of sculptures and Impressionist paintings. The analogy sounds exaggerated, but all you have to do is visit Instagram, or Facebook, or the website and let your gaze wander over the gorgeous sculptures made of colorful sugar paste, created by Svetlana Zaric (Lana Goussis) with unparalleled skill, imagination, and talent she exhibits on a regular basis since 2015.  

Her cakes are sought after by all the "collectors of works of art" who want to give quality, style, and refinement to every beautiful moment of their lives. Cakes for birthdays, weddings, births, graduations, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, and whatever occasion comes to mind are created by Lana's hands in a fascinating way.  

Born in 1985 in Serbia, she lived through the difficult years of the embargo imposed by the UN and as a child did not grow up with many toys. But her mother, who loved the arts and cooking, did not leave Lana and her sister for a minute without letting them make something. Whether it was with dough, a few paints, or pieces of fabric to sew clothes for their dolls, Lana learned to be creative without even realizing how great her talent was. She studied journalism in Serbia and worked for the newspaper Politica for some years, but she needed to do something else and searched for it urgently. 

So in 2010, she arrived in New York, where she soon fell in love with Spiro Goussis and they decided to make a life together and start a family. 

Lana had not made a single cake until that historic Easter of 2013, when Spiro decided to officially present her to his family, to Aunt Eleni and to Uncle Theotokis, his father's brother, after his parents had returned to Hellas. The Serb bride-to-be, terrified from the stories about the traditional minds of the Greeks who want brides "from the homeland" thought about what she could do to impress the family and to convince them that love has no homeland. She came up with the idea to make a big Easter cake like the ones she saw in the magazines. She and a friend went to Manhattan and bought all the ingredients for the cake recipe, as well as new shoes and a dress for Easter, the day of the crisis!  

She arrived home, spread out all the ingredients and completely lost her nerve, since she had really never made a cake in her life until then. But, you see, love conquers all and is not intimidated by difficulties. After six hours of effort, she made her first masterpiece – she herself could not believe how she made it, after she completely veered off the recipe, and her hands and imagination caught fire. I need not tell you the Happy Ending. Spiro’s relatives loved Lana and her cake and after a while Teddy, their son, a beautiful and very smart little boy, completed their family. 

Lana continued to make cakes for friends, to raise Teddy and to unfold her talent in creating confections great and small, which enchant you with the perfection of detail, unforgettable taste, and adaptation to the personality of the customer. 

In 2015, Margarita Goussis, her husband's mother, suggested that she open Cakes By Lana, which she funded.  

Lana's cakes, her little sweets and her cookies even transformed the Coronavirus into a sunbeam! 

This is the fairy tale of Cakes by Lana and if you want to ‘read’ it in person, visit the location 151-28a 34th Avenue in Flushing, call 718-415-4644, or email her at [email protected], or find her on Facebook or on Instagram @CAKESBYLANANYC. 

There is no other cake artist like her.