The Cake Shop is co-owned by Gail Wilson and Anna DeLoach. They specialize in wedding and specialty cakes for events such as birthdays and showers. Additionally, they prepare cookie bouquets, cheesecakes, dessert platters and brownies.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PARTNERS?
“We started our business two years ago,” said DeLoach. “We had worked together for five years. Our two sons owned a restaurant downtown called Happy Chefs. Gail came on after two months as an intern from the culinary school at FCCJ and stayed on as head of the bakery. When they sold the restaurant, she and I decided we didn’t want to be in the restaurant business; we really wanted to make cakes.”
“I decided it would be profitable because I was doing it for Publix for 10 years,” added Wilson.
WHY MAKE THAT DECISION?
“We learned we worked together really well,” said DeLoach. “I’m retired from the computer industry [she has a degree from UNF] but baking and cooking has always been my passion. That’s how I ended up in my son’s restaurant.”
WHAT MAKES YOUR PARTNERSHIP WORK?
“We’re always trying to outwork each other,” said DeLoach. “We make a good team. I think that’s part of our success. Both of us worked in careers before and we’re older. With younger people, they want everything now and are not willing to put in the long hours.”
WHAT IS THE APPEAL
OF BAKING?
“It’s very satisfying to be able to do something from start to finish that’s creative,” said DeLoach. “We create something that is artistic to please our customers. We try to design custom cakes that taste as good as they look.”
“I like the beauty of it,” added Wilson. “I like sweet things, things that taste good. My mom used to decorate with toothpicks and whipped icing. Just riding around and seeing buildings and the architecture I think, ‘That could be a design on a cake.’ ”
“We see cakes in everything we look at,” said DeLoach.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE?
“I like the wedding cakes because I have more freedom to create,” said DeLoach. “Our favorite thing is when a client comes in and has a vision of what they want but lets us have free reign with it.”
“They plant an idea and we expand on the art of it,” said Wilson. “She is an artist so she has the intuitiveness to draw that that.”
“We sketch a design out and then we talk about it,” said DeLoach. “We do it as a team effort. I know the construction side and Gail knows the decorating side.”
WEIRD SCIENCE
“I love the chemistry of baking,” said DeLoach. “There’s a science to it. If something goes wrong, there’s no mystery to it. We can normally figure it out. You can tune something a little bit and it changes everything. I find that fascinating.”
HOMETOWN
“I was born and raised in Japan,” said DeLoach. “I came here in the late 1960s. My father was in the military and my mother was Japanese. And I come from a whole family of artists.”
“My dad was a chef in the Army,” said Wilson. “I was born right here.”
FAMILY
A Lakewood resident, DeLoach is married to author Ned DeLoach, who writes about scuba diving and marine life. Four months out of the year, she travels with him to gather material for his books. They have three children, Doug, Nick and Nanette.
Wilson lives in Northwest Jacksonville with her husband Bob. They share seven children, Mike, Reggie, Jody, Maurice, Hope, Regina and B.J. She is also a Sunday school superintendent at Eastside Church of God.
WHAT’S MOST REWARDING ABOUT YOUR WORK?
“Designing the concept is fun to me,” said DeLoach. “I get a lot of satisfaction out of baking a product, pulling it out of the oven or making the perfect pastry cream. Creating the product and all the components that go into it are most satisfying for me.”
WHAT’S MOST CHALLENGING?
“Meeting deadlines,” said DeLoach.
WHO’S YOUR HERO?
Both agreed that Publix baker Pearl Graham was their idol. “She’s a legend,” said DeLoach. “Pearl trained Gail and made her what she is. She was so critical; she never let her get away with anything if it wasn’t perfect. She taught her all the ethics in doing things the right way, taking pride in what you’re doing and not being afraid to start over. All these things I learned from Gail. We’ve hired people to work in here from Publix and everybody either knows her or was trained by her.”
HOW MANY ARE ON
STAFF NOW?
A part-time assistant and an intern decorator.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE
SAN JOSE?
“We lucked out,” said DeLoach. “The kitchen is owned by caterer Ruth Daniels, but she doesn’t use the storefront. She only used the kitchen a few weekends and said she would be glad to share it. We love downtown, but we wanted to expand to a wedding cake business. We could not get brides to come downtown.”
WILL YOU EXPAND AGAIN ANYTIME SOON?
“We’re OK as far as room, but we want to expand our services,” said DeLoach. “We would like to sell cake decorating supplies because there’s a big call for it. There are a lot of places in town that sell cake decorating supplies like the craft stores, but we use the really high-end products that they don’t carry. And also teach. Gail used to teach cake decorating at FCCJ. That’s a lot of fun.”
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN TEN YEARS?
“We want to be successful money-wise,” said DeLoach. “My goal is to be the place everybody comes to for cakes.”
“And to have all of the top decorators here,” added Wilson.
IS COMPETITION FIERCE?
“There are a lot of good cake places in town,” said DeLoach. “A lot of the clubs and restaurants have good pastry chefs, too. But there’s still room to grow.”
ANY PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS?
“The Jacksonville Cake Club formed about six months ago,” said DeLoach. “It’s made up of hobbyists, professionals and other people interested in the art of baking and decorating cakes.”
— by Monica Chamness