About four years ago, Ramona Rushton special ordered a sand castle cake for her twins' birthday. The children saw the cake and had hoped it was completely edible as the small beach balls seemed like they should be a candy. To Rushton's surprise the majority of the cake, like the beach balls, was all plastic. As she took off this part and that part, she finally got down to the cake which turned into a regular rectangle cake.
"I had ordered a cake for them and it was probably 60 percent plastic," Rushton said. "It was really just a basic bottom to it and the rest was inedible."
Disappointed with what she had gotten, Rushton decided she would learn the art of specialty cakes and cupcakes developing, her business Ramona's Specialty Cakes and Cupcakes.
"I thought, 'I could do better than this,'" Rushton explained.
This was followed by a Christmas gift of everything her husband could find needed to try. There was no stopping her now as she felt as though she needed to proceed with learning after receiving the gift.
"It started with just family and friends, then I had someone that was related to someone call and ask if I would do it for them and it kind of just kept going and going," Rushton stated.
Three months ago her family moved from New Brunswick to Carlyle and as soon as they were situated in their new home, Rushton decided to get her business out to the public.
"once I got all my stuff unpacked I thought I'd just put an ad on the buy and sell and just see how that goes, it just really took on a life of itself," she said. "Most weekends I have anywhere between 2 and 5 cake orders to do, at the end of the month I have an order for 300 cupcakes to get done."
Her cakes are edible, aside from the odd toothpick needed to hold something together, but warning is given if this happens.
"The fondant I use, I make myself, everything I use, I make myself actually, my cake batters are all from scratch," Rushton explained. "the fondant I bought it when I first started, but it wasn't quite right so I started making my own."
Rushton has made a variety of themed cakes and cupcakes ranging from sports themes to cartoon characters, hunting, Duck Dynasty, hedgehogs, and more. Focusing mostly on birthdays, she does cakes for almost all other occasions as well, but does refrain from baking wedding cakes.
One of her upcoming cakes includes a semi with specific detailing.
"In November I have a transport [semi] cake coming up [I've made one before but] this one has a lot more detail so I'm excited," she stated.
"Some people will call me and say this is what I want and send me a picture of it, some will say this is the character, or this is the size and style I want do your own thing. I love when people say this is the theme do your thing. There's a variety of everything though."
The most intricate design she has made to date has been a dragon: "That took a long time. That would be my biggest challenge. The little scales you had to cut out one by one... I think it had between 2,500 and 2,700 scales so it took quite awhile. The head took me close to 7 hours to get as well."
Though this patience and time taken seems like a long time to spend on a project, Rushton absolutely loves what she does.
"I think my favourite part is sitting and molding the characters. My kids love Playdough and I love to sit down with my kids and play with Playdough, so a lot of times when I'm doing this at the table they'll sit with their Playdough, so as mommy shapes her fondant they'll shape the Playdough."
"To me it's nice because I can pick and choose my hours, I can still pick the kids up from school and have family time in the evenings."
Rushton sticks to about two or three cakes per weekend as she likes to ensure her finished product is done right. This is also one of the best parts of her work, seeing a tangible finished product created from a picture in her head.
Projects take between one and three days to finish, depending on the intricacies of the cake, but Rushton strives to make fresh cake.
"Some cakes are easier than others obviously, but one cake can take between one day and three days. The cake itself I usually won't bake until the day before, I do them the day before just because you never know what's going to happen, I mean I've dropped cakes and have to bake them again if I mold [the characters] to have that 3D look it takes longer and they usually have to sit and harden a little bit to sit on top of the cake, but if they're flat I can make them the same day as the cake. So I like to make everything as fresh as possible."
Rushton can be found at www.facebook.com/ramonasspecialtycakes or through her email [email protected]. Orders requested require information such as the size of cake they are interested in, how many people they need to feed, the flavour of the cake and icing, and the decoration details.
One new option she has added since coming to Carlyle includes e-transfers for online banking for ease of purchase. Rushton is also considering, once familiar with the area, offering delivery for her cakes as she used to have that option in New Brunswick but simply doesn't know this area well enough yet.
Since moving to Carlyle, Rushton says people have been excited about her business and many have already been in contact with her.
