Welcome to jimmy cakes' site! I am so thrilled that you took the time to stop by and check us out. I started decorating cakes about two and a half years ago while working at Bill's Pastry Shop. The story is kind of interesting, as I was not hired to do cakes, and had no prior experience in this field. Bill's has a commitment to hiring and assisting adults with disabilities, and I was an on-site job-coach, working individually with several of their clients. One of my responsibilities in this role was to decorate the 'cookie boys' that the clients had prepared. Bill's cake decorator, Christine saw me decorating these cookies and thought I had some natural talent, and kept hinting that she wanted to show me some techniques. I began learning from her, and her training, coupled with my creativity gave birth to jimmy cakes - my own cake business endeavor.
When I started this endeavor, I was working out of my galley kitchen, with about 5 total feet of counter space and a little Kitchen Aid mixer. Every cake I made resulted in a disastrous mess of a kitchen, which my wife graciously helped me clean up. I had NO idea what all was included in doing a simple cake - the prep time, baking time, decoration time, clean up time, not to mention shopping for ingredients and supplies. I am not a great business-man, so there was a steep learning curve (and I have a lot more to learn)!
From day one, I have always taken pride in the fact that I make my cakes from scratch. In this day and age, people are so used to the moisture and texture of a boxed cake, that it took a lot of tweaking and searching for home-made recipes that would rival a boxed cake. I think I have found a good number of recipes that fit this description, and am excited to be starting on a new Gluten Free, Casein Free venture as well. Besides cakes, I sometimes get in baking 'moods' and I end up making scones or cookies, but my passion is cake decorating!
At first, my family and friends were the only ones ordering jimmy cakes, but things have spread so rapidly, I am doing most of my cakes for people I have never met. This is such a cool feeling, because pretty much all of my marketing has been word of mouth and facebook! I lost count of how many cakes I have been able to do! Seriously, I dream about cakes! I constantly have ideas I wish I had a cake to try them out on!
A few months back, Bill's decided not to do wedding cakes any more, but they offered to pass wedding cake referrals on to me. I still do my own baking and use my own recipes, but am able to use their space (much larger than my galley kitchen) for cake testings and of course, to decorate! I am so thankful to Christine for teaching me so much, and am extremely grateful to Kimberly and Patrick Emerson who have allowed me to work alongside them!
