Beach-inspired cake on sandy shore, crafted by Bess Charles. -COURTESY PHOTO

While other seven and eight-year-olds were stirring mini-cakes and cooking with the light bulb of an Easy Bake oven, Naples’ own pastry chef Jenniffer Woo was sitting with her grandfather, Cuban immigrant Gilberto, taking notes from the chefs on Food Network. Today, Woo is making a name for herself in the food world as a corporate pastry chef for Lessing’s Hospitality Group. She does desserts for all of Lessing’s properties, including The Beacon and Lucky Shuck in Jupiter, The Clubhouse in North Palm Beach and the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.

Peach dessert by Jenniffer Woo. -COURTESY PHOTO

“I’m 32,” Woo shared. “There’s no one my age doing what I’m doing in this industry.” As Woo tells it, becoming a stand-out in the world of beautiful, c has always been her goal.

Fellow cake artist Bess Charles, owner of LadyCakes Bakery in Cape Coral, is also a prominent Southwest Florida cake artist. However, Charles’ path to becoming a leader in the field took years of detours. Still, both chefs share a passion for sweets; cakes and pastries as lovely as they are delectable. Earlier this month, the two shared how the legacy of family played a role in their artistry – and what keeps them cooking.

Jenniffer Woo, of Naples, positioned in one of her kitchens in Miami. -COURTESY PHOTO

Easter Egg Dessert art by Jenniffer Woo. -COURTESY PHOTO

Chef Charles is a petite woman with strands of purple hair, tattoos and warm brown eyes. She has two children, ages 17 and 20. Alongside Chef Charles in her commercial kitchen is her husband, Jeff, who mans the mighty ovens, and two assistant decorators.

“When I was growing up, my mother and grandmother cooked everything,” Charles shared. “I didn’t have a store-bought cake or a Little Debbie treat until I went to college.” She said everyone in the family got her grandmother’s pistachio cake with homemade whipped cream for their birthday.

Bess Charles sits before one of her cake creations. CASEY BRADLEY GENT / FLORIDA WEEKLY

“At eight years old, I thought that was a gross cake,” Charles teased. “Now, as an adult, I’d give my right arm for Grandma’s homemade pistachio cake.” The women in Charles’ family were not simply bakers, “they were cooks,” Charles shared. “Cooking with my mom was a splash here and there. It was random. I definitely did not get her cooking gene.” The family baking gene, though? “Yes. I definitely got the baking gene,” Charles said. “Baking is about precision. It involves measuring. That, I like.”

Edible seashells cover one of the workspaces at Lady Cakes in Cape Coral. CASEY BRADLEY GENT / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Bess Charles went to college for criminology, with a splash of psychology. “I was not baking in my early twenties,” she stated. Following college, Charles became a stay-at-home mom. “By then, I dabbled in baking,” Charles added. She has never taken a class in baking. She has never taken a class in fondant. “I am self-taught,” Charles shared. Before 2014, she baked birthday cakes for friends and family. But not pistachio cake. Soon, she began receiving phone calls from strangers. “People I didn’t know wanted my cakes,” she added, shrugging. “And we opened our first storefront in 2014.”

There is an art to rolling fondant in the Lady Cakes bakery. CASEY BRADLEY GENT / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Today, LadyCakes Bakery flourishes inside a one-year-old location on Cape Coral Parkway. Her large commercial kitchen is clean and sparse -aside from a massive shelf of cake tins and other wire coves containing sugary sprinkles. On the workspace in front of Charles, a handful of fresh fondant seashells takes form under her expert eye. For the upcoming weekend, Charles and her team will create 11 highly customized wedding cakes. One cake, of course, will feature an ocean theme and the seashells Charles is handcrafting. Both Charles and Woo agree that a cake that looks like art must also taste divine.

“Food is an experience,” Woo stated. She creates desserts that are as tasty as they are pretty. By the time Woo turned 15, she had her sights set on attending the culinary school, Johnson and Wales University. Once she was accepted to the Miami campus, Woo’s adult journey into precision baking officially began. Like Charles, Woo appreciates the science of baking. “My measurements are very specific,” Woo explained. Her stepdad was a pastry chef. His attention to the details of his recipes was not lost on Woo. “First, I focus on the look of my design,” she explained. “Then, on the taste. Both must be equally beautiful.”

Chef Woo is Cuban; she is inspired by the flavors of her childhood and incorporates many of them into her current menu offerings.  “My favorite dessert – to eat – is a guava pastelito,” Woo revealed. “It is flaky and buttery. I still eat one every day.”

Working as a pastry chef, though, is not the pinnacle to which Woo aspires. “I have lots of plans for my future,” Woo explained. “In 2027, I am getting married. Professionally, I’d love to maybe open a dessert bar or a doughnut shop.” True to her Cuban roots, Woo is already planning for a guava cream cheese-stuffed churro for her next sweet venture. She said she also intends to add guava to Key lime pie. Because of her love for flavor, Woo is intent on making everyone a “dessert person.”

Woo, who has had a mind full of sweet details, precise recipes and flavorful combinations since childhood, is far from tired of spending her days around dessert. She seems to be just getting started. In the future, look for Woo’s flavorful creations as they spread beauty to an additional layer of Lessing’s hospitality group: wedding cakes.

When you are creating cakes for 11 weddings during the same weekend, you need a lot of pans. Pans pictured at Lady Cakes bakery. CASEY BRADLEY GENT / FLORIDA WEEKLY

Charles, too, is known for offering unique tweaks on traditional tastes. One of LadyCakes Bakery’s most popular flavors is salted caramel pretzel. Lemon blueberry and “Death by Chocolate” are two additional highly popular flavors. When designing wedding, birthday, and bridal and baby shower cakes, Charles draws inspiration from her clients. In front of her commercial kitchen, there is a meeting space where Charles physically draws cakes in pencil as her clients detail their visions. A day or two prior to each event, Charles revisits her pencil drawings. “These sketches help cement the art of the cakes,” Charles explained. In another life, by the looks of her flourishing pencil sketches, chef Charles might have been an entirely different type of artist.

One might wonder if working around sugar and sweets and butter might become loathsome. “Not for me,” Charles smiled. “I love all of the flavors and the textures of cake. I am not tired of it.” She said part of the beauty of being a cake artist, lies in the fact that “every single day I am creating something entirely different than the day before.”

Lady Cakes owner and chef, Bess Charles, displays edible seashells she has made to top an upcoming wedding cake design. CASEY BRADLY GENT / FLORIDA WEEKLY