Blog / Sweet Success – Icing On the Top’s Jennifer Jones Receives National Attention (Tulsa People)
Sweet Success – Icing On the Top’s Jennifer Jones Receives National Attention For Her Special Occasion & Wedding Cake Creations – Tulsa People Article (by Rachel Weaver)
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Sweet success
Icing on the Top’s Jennifer Jones receives national attention for her special occasion and wedding cake creations.
One woman is making Tulsa a household name for beautiful cakes.
Since opening her business, Icing on the Top,Jennifer Jones has also been making a name for herself.
She recently assisted chef David Funaro of Godiva with designing and creating a 10-year anniversary cake for the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival. Twice Brides magazine has named Jones’ submission as one of the Most Beautiful Cakes in America.
Before she was designing award-winning cakes, Jones started in the kitchen baking with her mother.
It wasn’t until years later, for her daughter’s fifth birthday in 1999, that Jones found herself decorating another cake. Four years after that, a friend wanted to hire Jones to make her in-laws’ 50th anniversary cake (and wouldn’t take no for an answer, Jones says), which officially started her cake-making career.
In 2003, Jones, who is mostly self-taught and has learned other skills from fellow cake artists, formed her company, Icing on the Top. In June 2005 she moved into her first shop at 5459 S. Mingo Road. She has since moved to a new location downtown at 111 W. Fifth St.
Jones discusses her love for cake decorating and the recent attention she has received for her sweet creations.
“One year I got to make a birthday cake for my grandmother. She lived on a farm, so naturally I made a farm-themed cake. It was definitely made by the hand of a child, complete with a construction-paper barn and plenty of plastic animals. Once it was finished, I was so proud and my grandmother loved it.
In the fall of 2007, Maria McBride (editor of Brides magazine) attended the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show, in which I was competing. She saw my entry and decided that she wanted it in New York for the 50 Most Beautiful Cakes photo shoot. That cake was published in the March/April 2008 issue (of Brides).
This year, I was invited to submit sketches for the Most Beautiful Cakes competition. The next level of the competition required that I make a sample sugar tile of one of my designs and ship it to New York. From there, I was named as a finalist and had to either ship or deliver my cake to a New York studio to be photographed. Being placed in the magazine was still dependent on if the cake survived the trip and how well it photographed. Having said that, I once again have the privilege of being named one of the Most Beautiful Cakes in America and will be published in the September 2011 issue of Brides magazine.
The editor had expressed that they were looking for designs that were fresh and innovative. I draw a lot of inspiration from bridal magazines, so I started there. Within about 30 minutes, I had three sketches. Two were from trendy bridal gowns and the third was from a wedding invitation. Over the next two days, I made sample sugar tiles to make sure the designs would translate well into cake.
I am excited and humbled to be included with all the other designers chosen (in the September issue of Brides). It’s a neat feeling to know, when you see the magazine on the shelf at the store, your cake is in there.
The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival was hosted by Martha Stewart andEmeril Lagasse and included 12 other cakes created by chefs and cake decorators from across the country. The outrageous 10-tier chocolate fondant-covered cake was adorned with classic Godiva branding and chocolates (and) took two days to complete. I really enjoyed the partnership with Godiva and hope to have a chance to work with them again in the future.
Icing Smiles is a (Ellicott City, Md.-based) nonprofit organization that provides custom celebration cakes and other treats to families impacted by critical illness of a child. The main reason I started my bakery was from a desire to use talents given to me by God for the ministry and blessing of others. Icing Smiles is the perfect avenue for that.”
*At press time, Jones was asked to create a cake for an 8-year-old girl from Stroud, Okla., who has undergone several heart surgeries since she was 3 months old.
This article appears in the September 2011 issue of TulsaPeople
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