Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie Li.
Hi Jamie, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
JamieCakeSF began as a passion project. Cake decorating has been a steady presence in my life – creating cakes and celebrating friends. I used to think my journey into cake design began when I was working in the beauty industry and honing my craft by night, but now I realize it started many years before my days as a makeup artist.
My love for food, plating, and presentation to be specific, began with my mother. My mother is an amazing cook, but it was the plating and food styling that really made me take interest in food. She would make even the most benign food look amazing. Take a peeling an orange for instance, she would and still does take apart each slice and takes the time to arrange on a plate in a beautiful flower pattern.
My obsession for clean lines, that came from my father. I’m not sure if it was his Marine Corps background, but everything was perfect. Straight lines, perfect circle, everything even and level.
Now, put my parents’ influence along with my love for food, fashion, art, and beauty together – Jamie Cake SF is born! When I say born, I mean I really feel like I’ve started a completely new life leaving my 20-year career in beauty, marketing, and sales to become a full-time cake designer, compete on HBOMax Baketopia, cake styling commercials for Google/YouTube, and work with renowned wedding and event designers.
Never in a million years would I have guessed all my life and career experiences would lead me to cake design, but as scary as it was (and still is), deciding to make the jump into cake was one of the best (and scariest) decisions I’ve ever made.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As amazing as this journey in the cake world has been there definitely have been challenges. It’s no secret the pandemic threw a wrench in things for many people. I was no exception, a few months after I officially launched Jamie Cake SF in early 2020 all my large wedding and corporate orders cancelled due to COVID. However, about 3 weeks into the pandemic I had clients reaching out for smaller celebration cakes. These smaller cakes allowed me to experiment and try new techniques that I would not have otherwise tried.
As business increased over the last a few years, so did the paperwork and operations workload. Things began to get real and with real comes all the paperwork. I wouldn’t say this is an obstacle, but it is no doubt challenging for me to exercise the creative side of my brain while at the same time the operations side.
Now that things are running smoothly on the operations side, the never-ending challenge is work-life balance. I have a wonderful husband and 3 amazing children I love dearly, but also have a job that I am passionate about and love just as much. Finding the time to be mom, wife, creative, and business owner is something that I struggle with, but I’ve realized for me, balance is not something I can ever get, but something I continually do.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My background in beauty, fashion, and art has tremendously influenced my design style. I initially started out making fondant novelty cakes, then I discovered a whole world of buttercream. I went through a short stint of only designing buttercream cakes and swore off fondant. Over time I began working and experimenting with different types of mediums and found I love all mediums of cake decorating from fondant to all types of buttercream, to modeling chocolate.
I now don’t swear anything off and love to experiment and push the boundaries of how I can use all mediums. I look to both the fashion and art world for inspiration and enjoy using and learning new ways of how I can incorporate new techniques from airbrushing, collage, sculpting, and pallet painting techniques into my cake designs.
I don’t know if I have a certain style as I feel like my style is constant evolving as I experiment with new techniques and mediums, but what I do know is I’m constantly learning. I think that is why I love commissions from clients that are inspired their stories rather than an example of another cake. Each cake challenges me in a different way creatively, from new flavor combinations to design elements and techniques. Creating the design and telling the client’s story through cake is my favorite part of the process — No two cakes are ever the same.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Family beach days growing up in Hawaii and Southern California.
Contact Info:
- Website: JamieCakeSF.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/jamiecakesf?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamiecakesf
- Twitter: @jamiecakesf
Image Credits
HBOMax
Rob Wong
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