Icing on the cake

Unlike most other cake shops, Jingren Cake doesn’t have a store. Its online site filled with pictures of cakes is the only place customers can place their orders.

At the moment, there are over 1,000 styles of cakes available online, but the number keeps growing as more people purchase cakes specially made to their own requirements.

In the villa where Jingren Cake performs its magic, a team takes phone calls from clients on specific orders and finds out exactly what they want, and the story behind each order.

For Mao and her staff, making customized fondant cakes is more like creating visible and edible stories out of flour, eggs, sugar and butter.

Customers wanting personalized cakes are required to book and provide detailed information with photos if necessary at least three days in advance. It takes at least five to six hours to make one of their cake sensations. “We’ve one customer who turned from being a girlfriend to a wife and then a mother. She marked each step in her life with a cake; buying birthday cakes for her boyfriend, a cake for her wedding and birthday cakes for her child,” says Mao.

Quality is always the prime concern for Mao, and she always ensures her cakes can be eaten by everyone from the elderly to children.

All the ingredients and materials in Jingren Cake are imported from overseas including sugar, eggs, milk, flour and cream.

“We use real cream instead of vegetable or artificial cream, which can damage health, because we are making cakes to delight people,” Mao says.

Apart from pleasing individual clients, Jingren Cake also works with luxury brands such as Max Mara and Louis Vuitton by catering for their VIP events.

The next step for Mao may be opening a franchise in both a first- and second-tier city by the end of the year.

“I am looking for an experienced team to be properly trained and then authorized to make our branded cakes for customers in other cities in the near future,” Mao says.