Member Spotlight: Cathy Olate's Cupcakes Take the Cake!

Member Cathy Olate happened to stumble upon cake decorating as a job to help pay the rent. It soon became her passion, prompting her to embark upon a culinary arts degree in pastry and baking, an externship with Ron Ben Israel, and finally to open Jacy Cakes, LLC., with co-owner Josh Whitney.

Cathy takes great pleasure in perfecting the details of every cake she makes. It drives everything she does. She's crazy about cake and wouldn't want it any other way!

When Cathy heard about a "Cupcake vs. Cake" contest at NY Cake Convention, January 2010, her creative juices and humor really started to flow. She pictured an actual fight between cupcakes and cake and designed her "cupcake vs. cake" throwdown cake to reflect that vision.


Cupcakes try to attack a cake and tag their signature with an airbrush gun on the top tier. The face on the top tier is sad because it is getting a beat down from the cupcakes. The large cupcake on top has actually pushed the face partially "off" its tier!

The face on the bottom tier has an evil grin because as the biggest tier it was strong enough to sprout arms and fight back. That big, bad tier smooshes the icing of one cupcake and gives another cupcake a wedgie.

Cathy's original design featured more cupcakes climbing up to attack the cake, but she ultimately had to edit her design to allow herself enough time to finish this cake as well as take cake orders. Not a surprise that Cathy won First Prize for her creative, fun, and outstanding cake design.