Close of up Bridal Cakes By Jill cake (Image: Submitted)
Lifelong baker Jill Wilson has shifted her baking side-hustle to wedding cakes, coinciding with a boom in wedding celebrations due to COVID-19 pandemic winding down.
“I knew there wasn’t many places around, especially in Saint John, that did wedding cakes – and I just love them, they’re easy to do,” said Wilson.
Wilson began baking in Grade 12 and did a co-op with Danielle’s Desserts on Loch Lomond Road and at first just made cakes and cupcakes for family and friends in her parents’ kitchen.
After completing dental hygiene school in 2017, she created her first baking business with a focus on occasion-based baked goods, Milk & Butter Cupcakes. In July, she shifted her focus to making wedding cakes with Bridal Cakes By Jill.
Jill Wilson’s wedding cake and cupcakes (Image: Submitted)
With COVID restrictions lifting and more people getting vaccinated, the wedding industry is slowly recovering. Wilson was quickly inundated with inquiries and is now fully booked for 2021 with seven orders.
“I’ve been starting to get more inquiries about cakes, especially for 2022,” said Wilson. “Instagram is a really good tool to have to promote business – it where you see a lot of photographers and wedding stuff.”
Classic and rustic wedding aesthetics are currently popular, reflected in the Wilson’s compact wedding cakes and COVID-friendly individual cupcakes.
“The cupcakes are individually wrapped and just the portion that you hand out,” she said. “There’s no portioning involved, there’s no cutting, there’s no touching – a lot of brides have been asking for that option.”
Wilson says another popular cake request is a “naked icing cake,” where a cake is iced lightly once. “It’s not as sweet, there’s less icing, so a lot of people go for that option,” she said.
This story was originally published on Huddle.Today – an Acadia Broadcasting Limited content partner.
