NORWICH – Life doesn’t get much better than biting into an edible, hand-sculpted bow. After all, why take the time to untie the ribbon on your present when you can just eat it?
Such is the temptation that one Norwich entrepreneur hopes to capitalize on with a new cake baking business that specializes in sculpted sugar art. And with well over a 100 orders in just two months, it looks like she’s off to a very good start.
Jennifer Tanis Rice owns and operates Ideal Sweets Cakes and Cookies from her home in Norwich. A farm girl and former Chenango County Dairy Princess, Rice has taken the heavy cream and real butter she grew up around and mixed them with sugar and secret ingredients to bake cakes that are exceptionally moist and dense.
Both the cake and custard filling inside contain components that she wouldn’t dream of revealing.
“It all started because I made a birthday cake for my husband, Bret, and everybody who had some where he works went crazy for the taste. It’s the taste of my cakes ... I’m self taught. I can’t tell you what’s in them,” she said.
After that, Rice decided to take her baking to the next level and began experimenting with pre-packaged fondant, a moldable sugar icing that is readily available in supermarkets. It can be dyed any color in the spectrum and shaped to make just about any object. From intricately sculpted wedding dresses, to monkeys and lady bugs, and from beer kegs to wine bottles, Rice’s cakes have been adding that special touch to many a theme party.
She credits the wildly popular cake baking reality television shows, such as “Cake Boss” and “Ace of Cakes,” as creating an excellent consumer awareness climate for her new business. People are really wanting these over the top cakes, not just that they can eat, but for presentations, she said.
Baking in her kitchen at home enables the businesswoman to watch her two young children grow up, delightfully playing (or screaming, as the case may be) in the background. Her daughter, Shaelyn, who is 7, can usually be found simultaneously creating a concoction at the counter with her own mixing bowl and spoon.
Holding onto two-year old son Tyler can sometimes be a challenge, but Rice, who has a college degree in animal science, said she likes that her job keeps her at home “where all the most important things happen.”
The Ideal business name has been part of the baker’s family ever since her great-grandfather created it for his award winning Guernsey farm in New Jersey, which at the time was the largest Guernsey farm in the world. The name has been passed down and used by her family’s various agribusinesses over four generations and is associated with not only milk and cream, but also cottage cheese, cheeses and butter.
When asked to comment on the fat content of her cakes, and possible ways of marketing them to today’s more health-conscious society, Rice described her art as “simple elegance.”
“Cake is for a special occasion, and on special occasions we all deserve to have a little cake.”
The majority of Rice’s business comes from Facebook where she has more than 550 fans and customer referrals. For more information, visit her on Facebook or call 336-3614.