Drake on Cake

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Joy the Baker is one of my favorite bloggers.  I started reading her blog years ago, this is the post that sucked me in.  I’ve always loved her personable approach and her recipes are so delicious.  This lady also has some serious hustle and is one of the amazing women that inspired me to start this blog.  Joy moved to New Orleans a few years back and eventually opened the Bakehouse NOLA.  She opens her home for cooking, baking, and crafting classes,  I hope to one day get back to New Orleans so I can attend one!  In the meantime, I was incredibly lucky to snatch up a ticket to one of the workshops Joy hosted here in Seattle.  She did a ‘Drake on Cake’ class at Ashley Rodriguez’s Not Without Salt space.  It was everything I hoped it would be and so much more!

I was hesitant to sign up for the class since it seemed like such a splurge on something just for me. it only had 10 spots, though, so I’m glad Derek convinced me to buy a ticket!  When I arrived, I was greeted by Joy and given a choice of rosé, sparkling wine, or water (off to a great start!), while we waited for everyone to arrive.  The Not Without Salt shop is a cute and airy space that I was excited to see. I’ll definitely have to keep an eye on their events calendar.  I chatted with Joy (eek!) some other ladies there, while we waited for the class to start.  Joy had arranged already frosted cakes along the sides of a long table, so there was a place for each of us and a position for her at the head of the table.

She had us go around the table and introduce ourselves, where we’re from and if we had a Drake lyric in mind to use.  Joy also told us how her Drake on Cake Instagram account came to be.  She realized one day that Drake rhymes with cake and likes his lyrics so much she thought it would be a fun project.  It sort of took off and here we are.  I listen to his stuff on the radio but am not a rabid Drake fan so I appreciated that Joy had some of his lyrics written out if we needed inspiration.  It was fun going around the room hearing the lyrics some people had chosen and reassuring to know I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t decided yet.

Once we’d all introduced ourselves Joy shared with us which lyric she would be using (“Had a man last year, life goes on”).  She reminded us that it’s good to get the vibe of your chosen lyric, to take a minute to kind of get in the that head space before starting. 

Along with decorating staples around the room she had toothpicks in little dishes for us to use.  She demonstrated how they can be used to sort of lay out the lines and spacing of your words.  It’s such a good idea and I can’t believe it’s not something I’d thought of to do before.  You can can either cover the lines with the words, or just gently smudge them out with your fingers.  She also took this time to walk us through the various piping tips she’d chosen for us to use.  She had piping bags filled with different colors on the table, some for piping the words and then thicker ones for any additional decoration that we wanted to do. 

One thing I’d never thought to do when piping is to put one finger on the bottom of the bag as a guide while you pipe (so clever!).  Joy also told us to remember to keep your piping bag perpendicular to your cake, rather than at an angle.  

After all that, she actually piped the lyrics she chose onto her cake.  It was encouraging to see that even she still needs to give herself a pep talk before beginning.  🙂  I was lucky to have one of the  seats closest to her so I got a front row view! 

She decided after piping her first line she didn’t like the spacing, so she showed us how to easily remove any piping you’ve done with minimal damage.  You just dip your offset spatula in a teensy bit of water and spread it under the piping and it comes off pretty easily (that tip was useful to me later). 

Once Joy was done with piping the words on her cake, she showed us some basic decorative techniques like shells and other shapes.  There was also all kinds of sprinkles set out and several of the ladies brought their own to share. 

Once Joy’s cake was complete, she took us outside and styled a scene to photograph the cake with some flowers.  It was neat to see her creative process.  She left it there for us to see later and then it was our turn!

We all got to work on our own cakes.  Joy had cakes for each of us from Deep Sea Sugar and they were amazing!  It was chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting.  This is a bakery I’d been wanting to try and it did not disappoint!  It had a rich chocolate taste and the cake was super moist.  The class was on a Saturday and we were still eating the cake the following Friday and it was still just as moist!  It was fun to be in that space with these other ladies.  Everyone was so supportive, even though we didn’t all know each other.  It was fun seeing everyone’s process, some people deliberated for a long time and others dug right in.  I ended up choosing the lyric “My only wish is I die real”, chosen from the lyric jar.  I tried to keep the amount of colors I used contained and veer away for my normal preference of everything purple.  I also felt like the “real” should be emphasized so I gave that word its own color.  It took me a few tries to get the words right.  I could’ve done it over so many times, but I decided to cut myself some slack, not try to compare my work to everyone else’s, and just enjoy the experience.  

Once I had my quote on, I added some piping around the edges and then used various kinds of sprinkles.  There were so many varieties of sprinkles to choose from, I really had to try to hold back!  I didn’t want the cake to look too busy. 

As we finished Joy was outside at a table ready to help us stage our own photo of the cake.  It was so amazing to have this help, as I feel like this is an area I really struggle with.  Because of the lyrics, I wanted to use just flowers and not other confetti or artificial items.  Joy and I worked together to place them around the cake and I took some photos.  I’m really happy with the way the photo turned out.

At the end we all came back together and Joy had some parting words.  It was such a wonderful experience and something I am so grateful I had the opportunity to do.  It’s incredible to do something creative like that with talented ladies.  It was empowering in so many ways and really motivated me to up my decorating game!  I also have to say meeting Joy in person was a real treat.  Sometimes you worry that meeting someone you hold in such high esteem will be a letdown, but this was the exact opposite.  Joy was exactly the person I expected from her writing – she was genuine, hilarious, humble, and gracious and it was a dream to be in the same room with her!