BAKING AND decorating cake is just a hobby for Marva Thompson.
Still, when it comes to whipping up a tasty and decorative cake, this teacher at Girls Town on Maxfield Aveune in St. Andrew rises to the challenge.
The gold medal winner in the
individual wedding cake category at last month's JCDC professional
culinary arts competition, Thompson is proving that she can even outbake the big boys.
Gleaner writer Shawna-Kaye Lester caught up with Thompson
earlier this week to find out how she can make mere sugar and flour taste so good.
Marva Thompson is at home in the kitchen. For as long as she can remember she would cook dinner and invite friends over. However, it was in 1985 that she began to bake cakes, and she especially liked to make Christmas cakes.
Unlike baking, cake decorating was an art Marva was forced to learn. In 1991, the responsibility of baking and decorating her niece's wedding cake fell on her shoulders. She had agreed to bake the cake but the woman who was to do the decorating had to leave the island before the date set for the wedding. As an emergency plan, she showed Thompson how to mix icing and cut patterns.
The end product was "quite a success," said Thompson.
To feed her knowledge she enrolled at the University of Technology (UTech) for a cake making and decorating course and has followed that up with three-week long workshops at the Klara Johnson school of decorating. Klara Johnson comes to the island from the United States at least twice a year and hosts workshops in Jamaica.) In those sessions she learnt the art of sugar craft. "Once you mix icing with gelatin you can do almost anything with it," she explains.
Marva walked away happy from this year's JCDC professional culinary competition. She was responsible for creating a stir with her work named 'One Love, One Heart'.
Her skill and confidence have increased over the years. She entered the JCDC professional culinary competition in the wedding cake category for the first time in 1999 and walked away with a silver medal. In 1999 she also won gold in the J.C.D.C. regional culinary competition Jamaican guava tarts. She scored again in 2003, taking the gold medal in the J.C.D.C. regional culinary competition pumpkin bread.
WINNING OVER THE JUDGES
How did she win over the judges and top her category? It took more than sugar and spice and everything nice, said Thompson, who outlined a hectic week of preparation.
The week that she was getting ready for the competition she was also attending a HEART Academy training course from 8:30 to 4:30. At nights, tired, but determined, she painstakingly sculpted petals, flowers, drapes, a bride and groom from sugar.
The secret to winning, she noted, is knowing what the judges are looking for. "You have to impress them as to your skill. They are looking for more details than usual. They look for the work that you do. For example, you can use a textured rolling pin but the judges know that. You have to do the work yourself."
She further explained the process: Since the aim was to show her skill at decorating, she did not bake a real cake but did her decoration over styrofoam. "I used rolled fondant. This is a mix of icing sugar, glucose and glycerine. You mix it until it is pliable, use a rolling pin to roll it and then you cover your cake. For the drapery I had to fold evenly by hand.
Everything has to be done by hand. The bride and the groom (on the cake) were patchwork. You use the cutter and cut them and each little piece you have to fit together. The little church was patchwork. I also used pastillage for the side and roof. You use royal icing, this is icing sugar and egg white and it dries very hard."
Thompson added: "I feel very good about it (winning). This was the first year they were offering a cash award so I feel good, like my efforts have
paid off."
I LOVE WHAT I DO
For the past three years Thompson has found yet
another way to keep her hands messy in the kitchen. She does this by teaching food preparation at Girls Town Jamaica (Professional Development Institute) on Maxfield Avenue. The course includes the HEART Level 1 food preparation programme. For the first time last year students from the school won medals in the JCDC (amateur) food festival competition.
"They entered a few of their jams and puddings in the festivals and they won a couple of medals."
What does she enjoy most about her handiwork? "After I have done it I can look at it and admire it. Sometimes you really think, did I do that? I may get help form my husband (Carlton Thompson), he is an artist but it's a challenge. I always try to do something a little different when I make cakes for people. I like to see them look at it and enjoy what they are seeing."
