VOORHEESVILLE — Cake is more than just another confection for Giovanni Morina; it’s a canvas.
"This is butter cream country now," he said. "People don’t realize what you can do with cake."

The local baker, who recently opened up shop in the village, has made cakes for all occasions. One couple, a pair of architects, sent Morina blueprints for their wedding cake — a tall, Deco building in pristine white.

Grooms’ cakes are often the most fun, Morina said, because they usually illustrate the man’s biggest interest. Recently, he made a groom’s cake in the shape of a guitar and used spaghetti for the strings.

For a homecoming celebration, he made a suitcase cake, with shirt sleeves and pant legs hanging out of its overstuffed sides.

Morina made the welcome-home cake for Laurie Michaud’s sister, who was coming back from California. Michaud works in the shop; the two met while Morina was working at her computer business.
"I was his boss; now he’s my boss," she said with a chuckle. "He taught me everything I know," she said. "I was an out-of-the-box baker."
Morina started cooking in his grandmother’s kitchen, he said. Now, he has a culinary degree from Schenectady County Community College. "Baking is more of a science than cooking," he said of why he chose to open a pastry shop. "Everything has to be exact."
He’s an excellent cook as well, though, said his wife, Angela. "I won’t eat it any place else because it’s not going to be his," she said of his chicken marsala, her favorite dish.

Of his confections, the canolies are the best, she said. It took him years to perfect the recipe, and now they’re the biggest seller at La Pasticceria.

The couple bought the building at 22 South Main St. four years ago. There had been an Elks’ lodge upstairs, which they’ve made into an apartment, and Smitty’s Pizza Run was downstairs, which now has all the trappings of an Italian bakery and coffee shop.

The Morinas live above the shop with their two children, Francesca, 2, and Enzo, 5. At this age, their son prefers chicken nuggets and French fries, Mrs. Morina said, but he has a little chef’s coat and loves to spend time in the bakery.
"For now it’s fine," Morina said. "I think his palette will change when he gets older."

Mr. Morina’s palette was schooled on family fare.
Flavors of Sicily, where much of his family still lives, show up in his dishes, he said. "I use a lot of almonds and orange," he said, and his Sicilian family is in the orange business.
"When you’re a chef, you don’t usually have a favorite," Morina said when asked what he liked to cook best. "Just the joy of cooking."