If you haven’t met Jessika Menard, let me introduce you. Menard makes cakes – scrumptious, mouthwatering, smile-bursting cakes.
Better still, she makes her cakes right here in Hudson. And just to ensure that the sweets-loving public has every opportunity to experience her exclusive creations firsthand, Menard recently opened a sparkling new confectionary in Hudson’s IGA building. She calls it Café Cakes par Haute Couture (her motto: art at its finest). And yes, her pastries are that breathtaking.
A resident of St-Lazare who has been in the cake business for three years now, the youthful and very vibrant Menard began her journey as a cake artisan (dare we call it a cake-walk?) the day she set out to bake a birthday cake for her daughter. Unhappy with the standard commercial ingredients at her disposal, she started from scratch – something she had never done before.
The result was such a hit that a second cake soon followed, and another, until suddenly friends and neighbours were inundating her with special cake requests.
“First, it was one cake, then two and by the end of the year I had made 200 or more,” says Menard. “Before I even realized it, making cakes had become a business. Suddenly I was a business woman.”
Today, that number is up in the thousands, as local and regional establishments like Les Moulins La Fayette and Château Vaudreuil increasingly send their pastry orders, especially wedding cake orders, her way.
In the beginning Menard worked from home, doing all the prep and baking in her St-Lazare kitchen. But as the business grew and demand increased, she was compelled to seek out more spacious and better-equipped facilities. This move kept product flowing, but provided little opportunity for direct contact with the public.
“I am a people person,” she says. “I love working with the public. I’m at ease with my customers, and I think this helps them have confidence in me.”
And so, early this past spring, she opened her own shop, next door to the Hudson Ice Cream production centre on the east side of the IGA. Handsomely appointed, Café Cakes par Haute Couture boasts an intimate art-deco coffeeshop setting awash in a sea of fascinating art byHudson’s Susan Porter – the perfect place for a dash of cake, accompanied by a cup of specialty tea or coffee and a spot of ice cream on the side. Menard prides herself on the quality of everything she serves – from her coffee and tea to the variety of her milkshakes (flavours include chai and green tea, a killer coffee shake, and amaretto) to the multitude of decorated cupcakes that line her display cases. A first-time visitor looking for a unique experience might want to test-drive one of her whipped cream cheese pies – they come in many different flavours; or chocolate cheese cake or Black Forest cake served as a mousse, or even the cake-pop – an uptown lollipop with cake replacing candy on the stick; or, frankly, so much else – including gluten free raw vegan cakes. And ice cream is always available to add that special touch to any pastry treat.
Ever on the lookout for new challenges, a few days ago Menard delivered the first in a series of cake-decorating workshops she has lined up. And even as we speak, she is launching a new product, Buttercream icing. Watch for it in a store near you.
Insistent all that she produces be top-of-the-line, Menard is unequivocal. “I want everything I present to be the very best,” she avows.
So far her formula seems to be working just fine.
Bill Young of Hudson is co-author of the recent book, Ecstasy to Agony: the 1994 Montreal Expos, with former Expos beat writer Danny Gallagher.
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