Have Your Cake and Decorate It Too at Francesca’s Cakery

With cake shows taking over TV, viewers are constantly entering the world of cake decorating. Between over-the-top customer requests and arguments between workers/family members, cake reality shows do not fully focus on cake decorator’s demanding schedule and the struggles of learning the craft behind the beautiful cakes made.  

Francesca Grace, of Freehold’s own , takes her passion of providing customers with beautifully decorated cakes at moderate prices to another level by opening up her kitchen for weekly cake decorating classes.

“I always hear the same story,” says Grace. “People come into a cake decorating class and tell me how their moms always made them a cake for their birthday, and even though the cakes were never perfect, it meant a lot to them and is something they will always remember.”

Being in the memory-making business for 16 years now, Grace has opened up her “destination location” as she calls it, in the back of the on Main Street. The building has changed businesses over the years and was at one point a restaurant. Now, as the front of the building allows people to dance their hearts out, the back of the studio, (which used to be a kitchen for the restaurant) is now Francesca’s Cakery.

Complete with tables, ovens, an industrial size mixer, and a walk-in freezer converted into a cake decorating equipment room, Grace has everything needed to create memories and to teach eager decorators.

“If you get into cake decorating you might as well resign yourself to the fact that you will be giving up your dining room because all of your gear is going to end up there,” joked Grace. “I bake my cakes the night before they do go out, we do not freeze anything here which is why I converted my walk-in freezer into a closet for gear.”

Selling mostly only custom cakes, cookies, and cupcakes, the major difference between Francesca’s Cakery and other bakeries is there is not a variety of product sold in the store on any given day. Although that does limit the number of people coming into the Cakery on a daily basis, when people do come in to order a custom cake, all her attention is on you.

“The hardest part of making cakes actually comes before you even start baking or designing,” explained Grace. “Getting all of the information from a customer’s idea into a visual format is the hardest. For example, when you say blue, and I say blue, we could be thinking of two different blues. So to provide full customer satisfaction I have to be a bit of psychiatrist to really find out what they want.”

Priding her business on serving a moist and fresh cake, Francesca’s Cakery can practically make anything their customers want and do it in the customer’s budget.

“Because of some of the more over-the-top cakes we have made we are getting that reputation but we do sheet cakes just as well, we just add a little more sparkle to them.”

Keeping prices in customer’s budget is important to Grace, and she does that by being only one of the three cake makers in the whole country that do not make their cakes completely out of fondant.

“I specialize in fondant cutouts on top of a buttercream cake,” explained Grace. “Not only does this type of cake keep costs down, but it also is the type of cake most people expect. I do a sponge cake with some type of dairy filling. Our customers love that and so do chefs because when they are cutting into it, they don’t have to peel off a heavy layer of fondant.”

As mentioned earlier, Francesca’s Cakery also provides classes a few days a week to anyone interested in learning cake decorating skills. From beginner’s fondant, gumpaste, and buttercream classes, to kid’s classes, and even advanced decorating classes, Francesca’s Cakery provides multiple classes a week to people at any skill level.

Grace got into cake decorating after realizing that no one at the restaurant she worked at was able to write writing "Happy Birthday" on a customer’s cake. In order to better help the restaurant’s customers, Grace began taking cake decorating classes at .

“Since I was an art major in college, I was immediately addicted to cake decorating. I joined cake clubs and then continued to teach myself,” explained Grace.

Teaching cake decorating for 14 years now, Grace remembers how hard it was to learn all of the skills on your own and decided to start an academy to further educate people interested in cake decorating.

“Teaching is so nature for me so I wanted to develop the NJ Sugar Academy and also wanted to have a forum for other people to come in and teach,” said Grace.

Teaching franchise owners like Coldstone Creamery and even Wegman’s cake decorators, Grace can teach everyone from children to expert level decorators and even has television cake stars come in to teach their techniques.

In addition to providing classes at her location, Francesca’s Cakery also specializes in children's parties, and has become a party destination.

“Our parties are all inclusive,” said Grace. “We provide pizza, decorating the cake is the activity and the party favor is the cake they decorate. It is stress free for parents and just so much fun.”

Francesca’s Cakery is open seven days a week and can be contacted by calling (732) 567-7183 or by emailing Francesca Grace at ashfood@optonline.net. More information on classes at the Sugar Art Academy can also be found by clicking here.