Daughters in Toronto help their self-taught baker mom create gem-like cakes
Two daughters in Toronto have lent a hand, and some mad skills, to help their mom launch her new cake business, Mommy Liu Bakes.
Shirley Lin, 22, doesn't do just any old decorations, however. The University of Waterloo science major has been mastering the art of buttercream painting ever since helping her stay-at-home mom turn her passion for baking into a business last June.
"I have a huge passion for art, hence our cake box art designs we have been doing since the beginning, and have been loving the minimalist buttercream Korean-style cakes that are in trend," Shirley tells blogTO.
Her mom does all the baking, while Shirley helps with things like calligraphy, cake-box design and her specialty, buttercream painting. Her 18-year-old sister, Ivy Lin (18 and still in grade 12) helps Shirley run the Mommy Liu Instagram, and also assists with tasks like photography, folding boxes and contactless pickups.
"I wanted to use the buttercream painting medium to express and show my love for art," says Shirley.
"I started painting easier paintings in the beginning of February and slowly found my pace to draw more complex paintings and have learned a lot through the process."
She's since created cute designs that depict anything from Sailor Moon to Spongebob Squarepants to BTS in vivid colours and incredibly detailed piping work.
While Shirley's decorations have helped the cake business gain attention and popularity, the deliciousness of her mom's cakes is what seals the deal. She specializes in whipped cream chiffon cakes, an Asian style of cake that marries a light texture with rich creaminess.
Pricing varies for their custom cakes, which are available in vanilla, chocolate, milk tea, sesame, pandan, matcha, lemon and chocolate matcha flavours. Whipped cream frosting flavour options include Oreo, Nutella, cream cheese, strawberry, blueberry and raspberry. You can even get them with boba filling.
You can DM or email to order. Six-inch cakes start at $50 and six-inch buttercream painting cakes start at $80, with payment accepted by e-transfer. It's recommended you order at least three days in advance of the date you want to get the cake. You can pick up in Markham, or get delivery in the GTA for a fee.
"Our cakes are not too sweet as well," Shirley says. "But since the recent addition of minimalist buttercream painting cakes, we have gotten so much more love from everyone."
They also recently started doing lunchbox cakes (small, cute, portable cakes also known as bento cakes) that they say have been selling out.
"We want to continue to use buttercream painting as a medium on our whipped cream cakes and hopefully start taking custom lunchbox
cake orders, since we've gotten so many requests for them," Shirley says.
Shirley Liu
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