The History of Cakes by Suzy

Instead of showing cakes this week, I thought I'd just reminisce a bit about the beginnings of "Cakes by Suzy" as we know it today!!!

My interest for caking began, casually, as a teenager.  I had sort of a mentor who did wedding cakes on the side for friends and family.   One day I went to her house as she was making royal icing roses, and she showed me how.  So we sat there for a few hours making roses...I remember being thrilled to make one nice enough she would actually keep and use on the cake!!!!

After that I tried to enter a decorated cake in a small school contest...but I had not been patient enough for the royal icing decorations to dry (last minute) and the cake was a dismal failure.  (No pix...that was back in 1991 or so.)    I sort of lost interest in caking after that for awhile.

Then in the small college I attended, I worked in the kitchen on scholarship....and was the only one who could pipe an icing border...so each month I would make the sheet cake for the birthdays for that month.   Sometimes I would also pipe little roses or flowers or pictures on it as well.

After college, I again laid aside cake decorating.  But sometime in 2000 or so I decided to buy a Wilton kit and start up again.  A friend of mine was having a housewarming, and I wanted to tackle the cake.  I baked up a simple two layer, 11x15 sheet cake and iced it the best I could (droopy corners and all) and then got a house shaped 3D candy mold and painstakingly colored all the details with melted candy...put it together...and put it on top of the droopy sheet cake.   I tried to find a picture of this "official first cake" but could not!!!   I was so proud of it and everyone else thought it was "amazing" so thus began making cakes for friends in the area.

Back then we did not have much in the way of internet, certainly no YouTube or Cake Central...so I tried to mostly figure things out on my own.   I copied party plates by using a toothpick to draw the decoration onto a sheet cake and sold it to friends for $20:

Obviously now there are some copyright laws to follow that I was not aware of at that time!  I was just practicing on my friends.

Then, before Charm City Cakes hit the scene, I began trying to work on 3D cakes.   At first I just used the Wilton molds:

But then, I tried going a step further...I combined the Wilton bear mold with a Wilton wonder mold to make this for my best friend's baby shower:

Here is another 3D attempt I made, using the Wilton ball pan:

Soon after that, I decided to try to do a tiered cake...so I purchased the Wilton "Tall Tier" stand and did this at no charge for our church anniversary service:

Of course the flowers were silk, the beads were not edible...but I was pretty proud of myself.  haha.   After that, I did my first "real" wedding:

All the daisies were made of royal icing.    I just looked up how to make them in the Wilton Yearbook and went to it!

Soon after that, we moved to the Philadelphia area.   I continued making cakes here and there by word of mouth, and also dabbling in sculptured work, which was also an early attempt using fondant...this particular fondant was homemade rolled buttercream:

This was my first car cake.....which in my opinion was pretty rough...but it was also pretty big!!!!

As time went on, I dabbled more into fondant cakes:

At this point I took a quick Wilton Course III to make sure I was doing the fondant right...which I was....although it takes a lot of practice to, first, get the buttercream smooth, and then, get the fondant on smoothly on top.

In around 2006 I was able to obtain a part time job at Conroy Catering, at the Knowlton Mansion in Philadelphia, doing wedding cakes.  I was able to get in based on my limited portfolio of cakes and then the training I received there was amazing, to increase my confidence in doing tiered cakes, to teach me more about fillings and icings, and to increase my ability to ice cakes in buttercream, particularly non-crusting types of buttercream.  I had to quit after that year because I had a little surprise #4 baby.  :-)

Also at that time, my "word of mouth" business had become enough to where I knew I had to work on the legal end...before, I really wasn't pulling a profit nor did I realize there was a legal side to baking from home.   When my fourth baby was about 5 months old I got my inspection from the Department of Agriculture, in 2008, as well as business insurance and other inspections that were necessary.

My business has grown slowly, but steadily, and I LOVE that I'm able to do this from home as a part-time job.   From the humble cakes at the beginning, I have had the privilege of being in two (going on three) issues of the Philadelphia Wedding Magazine....entered several competitions, one of which I've won....and drastically increasing my sculpting abilities and wedding cake experience.

I love that cake decorating is a learning experience that never ends!  With each new cake order I improve my skills and try to learn new things.   Just because I have moved from amateur to professional does not mean I do not have more things to learn.... and I hope that in 10 more years I'll be able to blog again showing all the additional COOL things I've been able to do with cake and sugar!!!!

Check back next week for more NEW CAKES!!!!!