Paula Ames
Written by Yann Ranaivo of The Idaho State Journal. - Link to article -
- CHUBBUCK — Paula Ames could help you celebrate your high school graduation with a cap and diploma cake.
Ames, 36, runs a cake decorating business and has baked for a wide range of occasions, including weddings, birthday parties, Eagle Scout promotions and other personal celebrations.
Just recently, Ames took part in an event during which she helped a team decorate and assemble a cake. The event, called the Ultimate Cake-Off, was hosted by The Learning Channel, which filmed the competition on Thursday and Friday.
TLC will announce the winning team when it airs the Cake-Off episode later this year.
“It was a cake decoration show, and they gave you eight hours to decorate and assemble a cake that is over 5 feet tall,” Ames said, adding that TLC has ordered the contestants to disclose few details about the Cake-Off. “It was really hard.”
Ames, who has four sons, said she became interested in cake decorating about 11 years ago when she decided that she preferred not to use pre-baked cake from the grocery store.
“Then up until about three years ago, I just always made cake for my family and thought, ‘I think I have a knack for this,’” she said.Ames began researching the different styles of cake decorating and networked with a number of other decorators to improve her craft. While the entire baking and decorating process lasts several hours, she said the work is soothing. In fact, Ames believes the hardest part of her profession is delivering the cake. “Some of the roads around here aren’t cake friendly,” she jokes, adding that bumpy car rides can cause the cake to fall apart and ruin several hours of work.
Due to the lengthy process, Ames usually bakes and decorates between five and 10 cakes per week. “Wedding cakes, for example, can take anywhere from 10 to 100 hours, depending on the design,” she said. “I did an eagle cake for Memorial Day, and that took 50 hours.” Ames said she never uses cake kits to decorate her cakes, choosing instead to use homemade ingredients. For the eagle cake, she used modeling chocolate and sugar paste to help her hand-sculpt the cake.
Ames said she likes her cakes to reflect the recipients’ personalities. “Life imitation cakes, those are my favorite ones,” she said. “For example, my nephew does debate and plays an instrument. For him, I would probably do a stack of cake textbooks and have a sugar instrument leaning on it.”
