Halabi’s Monopoly-based cake is tops on recent episode

For Lilian Halabi, keeping quiet about the competition was almost as hard as winning the nationally-televised Cake Wars.

Halabi won the most recent episode of Cake Wars. The show airs on Monday nights on the Food Network. She and assistant Samantha Adkins went to Los Angeles this summer for the competition that required Halabi to bake a Monopoly-themed cake in a four-hour period.

The cakes were judged by master chefs and judges Waylynn Lucas and Ron Ben-Israel. Rebecca Hollander, director of the Monopoly brand at Hasbro, was also on hand to help pick the winner among four competitors.

Winning the competition earns Lily $10,000, but more importantly put Halabi and her Lily’s Cakes on a national stage.

The episode was taped over the summer and Halabi and her family, including husband Sam, son Amir, 18 and daughters Sarah, 15 and Zeina, 10, and employees had to mum about it until it aired on Jan. 24.

“Oh my gosh that was so hard,” Halabi told Salado Village Voice about being silent on the results of the show.

In addition to Lily’s Cakes in Harker Heights, the Halabis have expanded their wedding enterprise to include La Rio Mansion in Belton, a large event venue and more recently the Inn at Salado on Main St. Salado.

The Halabis will celebrate one year of owning the Inn at Salado, which they purchased from Rob and Suzanne Petro, who owned the business for about two decades. Inn at Salado is the oldest bed and breakfast inn in Salado, launched in the early 1980s by Larry and Cathy Sands.

George Kolb purchased it in the mid-1980s from the Sands and the Petros purchased it from Kolb after he added the Allen Chapel and the Baylor House to the grounds.

The Inn at Salado is well-known as a beautiful venue for weddings and gatherings, whether in the Allen Chapel or under the giant live oak on the grounds of the property.

“It was a perfect complement to what we were already doing,” Lily said of the purchase of the Inn at Salado.

Lily had been the in-house baker for the Inn’s wedding packages for about 18 months when the opportunity to purchase it came about.

The Inn offers a complete wedding package that includes your choice of ceremony locations, a bride’s room with an overnight stay and gourmet breakfast and full coordination of the wedding and reception by the Inn staff. The Inn has a 3,300 sq. ft. indoor reception area, on-site catering with a choice of five menu options and wedding and groom’s cakes made by Lily. Decorations and furnishings are also part of the package at Inn at Salado.

About a year after opening Lily’s Cakes in Harker Heights, Lily met the wedding coordinators at Inn at Salado and began working for them as the in-house baker.

Two years later, the Halabis were able to make the leap to become the owners of the Inn at Salado.

Their plate is full and it is about to be more so. They plan to open a second location for Lily’s Cakes in Temple.

To taste Lily’s cupcakes and get an idea of the custom cake she can make for you, visit Lily’s Cakes, 360 West Central Texas Expressway in Harker Heights.

To learn more about La Rio Mansion event center in Belton, visit lariomansion.com or email weddings@lariomansion.com.

You can call Inn at Salado at 254-947-0027 or email weddings@inn-at-salado.com.