03Jody Love baked and decorated her first cake when she was nine, and by 19, she started her own cake decorating business – Cakes A Bloomin’. At first, she sold cake decorating supplies and taught classes, all the while perfecting her talent at creating from-scratch cakes, cupcakes and other sweets.
Using her secret butter cream frosting recipe, she can transform a client’s cake dreams into sheet cakes, multi-layered wedding, anniversary and birthday cakes.
Imagine seeing your first glimpse of your wedding cake come to life exactly as you pictured it would when you met with the wedding coordinator. Each tier is a different, but equally moist flavor of cake, covered in light-as-air buttercream icing. The delicate design perfectly matches the wedding theme.
Perhaps you’ve wondered how multi-layered cakes are supported. Cake decorating
architecture requires careful layer construction, held together with special support dowels. Special appliques to cake often require sturdy fondant icing design. For wedding cakes, Jody requires 2-3 months’ notice, depending on the cake’s complexity. A wedding cake’s cost can has a wide range from $100 to $1000 or more, depending on servings and design. Most wedding cakes will cost $3.20 per serving.
Brides and grooms planning to eat the top layer of the cake on their first anniversary are advised to seal the cake in a water-tight plastic freezer bag and a water-resistant box. “Otherwise,” adds Jody, “the top layer will take on tastes of the freezer.” Or, a couple can ask Jody to replicate the top layer as their first anniversary draws near.
Sheet cakes for birthdays, graduation open houses or other special events can range from $24 to $100, depending on the design and number of servings. Two days’ notice is needed for sheet cakes. “We strongly suggest that our cakes be kept in a cool or refrigerated area prior to serving. There’s nothing worse than frosting melting into a Salvador Dali-like puddle.”
Cakes A Bloomin’ also creates intricately frosted cupcakes, cookies, cheesecakes and caramel corn. “We have one customer who orders 600 bags of caramel corn at the holidays each year.” The butter cream frosting for cakes and cupcakes can be infused with more than 15 flavors, chocolate cherry, caramel turtle, mint chocolate and banana cream, to name but a few.
One of Jody’s former employees is from the Upper Peninsula, and wanted to create homemade pasties, and these are offered daily in ground sirloin (plain or with rutabaga), chicken or vegetarian. Our pasties are fully cooked but stored frozen with heating instructions on the label.
Cakes 
and other confections can be picked up or delivered. “We advise wedding clients to let us deliver their cake, so it arrives in perfect condition, ready to be served at a pre-determined time. Generally, they deliver within a 50-miles radius of Lansing.
She and her staff of six work out of a west-side, 2000-square-foot kitchen with walk-in refrigerator and freezer. Her husband, Jeff, handles the paperwork and handyman repairs. Jody insists on training cake decorators from methods she’s found to be effective. Bakers are expected to be attentive to recipes and ensuring the cake layers are as moist as the frosting.
Even though decorating cakes and other sweets demands 70-80 hours a week, Jody concedes she loves what she does. “I’ve never lost my childhood professional dream. I’m always delighted when a parent brings their child in to pick up a birthday cake, and they grin from ear to ear, as they anticipate that first piece of cake.”
Cakes A Bloomin’
412 Elmwood Rd.
Lansing, MI 48917
(517) 321-2230
http://cakes-a-bloomin.com/