Bakers cashing in on Instagram's cake obsession

Washington

IN A cramped Manhattan apartment kitchen, Chelsey White painstakingly bakes, assembles, frosts and decorates an elaborate mermaid-themed cake. The entire four-hour process is videotaped, then edited down to a few brisk minutes and shared on social media. Its purpose served, the three-tiered, picture-perfect cake is chopped up and jammed into a Tupperware container. Ms White brings all her leftovers to the office. She hates wasting cake.

With over a quarter-million followers and videos tha…