{"id":350840,"date":"2026-07-24T06:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T06:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/350840\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T06:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T06:35:14","slug":"confection-perfection-florida-weekly-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/350840\/","title":{"rendered":"Confection perfection – Florida Weekly"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Beach-inspired cake on sandy shore, crafted by Bess Charles. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

While other seven and eight-year-olds were stirring mini-cakes and cooking with the light bulb of an Easy Bake oven, Naples\u2019 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\u2019s Hospitality Group. She does desserts for all of Lessing\u2019s properties, including The Beacon and Lucky Shuck in Jupiter,\u00a0The Clubhouse in North Palm Beach and the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.\n<\/p>\n

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Peach dessert by Jenniffer Woo. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 32,\u201d Woo shared. \u201cThere\u2019s no one my age doing what I\u2019m doing in this industry.\u201d As Woo tells it, becoming a stand-out in the world of beautiful, c has always been her goal.\n<\/p>\n

Fellow cake artist Bess Charles, owner of LadyCakes Bakery in Cape Coral, is also a prominent Southwest Florida cake artist. However, Charles\u2019 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 \u2013 and what keeps them cooking.\n<\/p>\n

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Jenniffer Woo, of Naples, positioned in one of her kitchens in Miami. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

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Easter Egg Dessert art by Jenniffer Woo. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was growing up, my mother and grandmother cooked everything,\u201d Charles shared. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a store-bought cake or a Little Debbie treat until I went to college.\u201d She said everyone in the family got her grandmother\u2019s pistachio cake with homemade whipped cream for their birthday.\n<\/p>\n

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Bess Charles sits before one of her cake creations. CASEY BRADLEY GENT \/ FLORIDA WEEKLY<\/p>\n

\u201cAt eight years old, I thought that was a gross cake,\u201d Charles teased. \u201cNow, as an adult, I\u2019d give my right arm for Grandma\u2019s homemade pistachio cake.\u201d The women in Charles\u2019 family were not simply bakers, \u201cthey were cooks,\u201d Charles shared. \u201cCooking with my mom was a splash here and there. It was random. I definitely did not get her cooking gene.\u201d The family baking gene, though? \u201cYes. I definitely got the baking gene,\u201d Charles said. \u201cBaking is about precision. It involves measuring. That, I like.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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

Bess Charles went to college for criminology, with a splash of psychology. \u201cI was not baking in my early twenties,\u201d she stated. Following college, Charles became a stay-at-home mom. \u201cBy then, I dabbled in baking,\u201d Charles added. She has never taken a class in baking. She has never taken a class in fondant. \u201cI am self-taught,\u201d Charles shared. Before 2014, she baked birthday cakes for friends and family. But not pistachio cake. Soon, she began receiving phone calls from strangers. \u201cPeople I didn\u2019t know wanted my cakes,\u201d she added, shrugging. \u201cAnd we opened our first storefront in 2014.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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There is an art to rolling fondant in the Lady Cakes bakery. CASEY BRADLEY GENT \/ FLORIDA WEEKLY<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFood is an experience,\u201d 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\u2019s adult journey into precision baking officially began. Like Charles, Woo appreciates the science of baking. \u201cMy measurements are very specific,\u201d Woo explained. Her stepdad was a pastry chef. His attention to the details of his recipes was not lost on Woo. \u201cFirst, I focus on the look of my design,\u201d she explained. \u201cThen, on the taste. Both must be equally beautiful.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Chef Woo is Cuban; she is inspired by the flavors of her childhood and incorporates many of them into her current menu offerings.\u00a0 \u201cMy favorite dessert \u2013 to eat \u2013 is a guava pastelito,\u201d Woo revealed. \u201cIt is flaky and buttery. I still eat one every day.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Working as a pastry chef, though, is not the pinnacle to which Woo aspires. \u201cI have lots of plans for my future,\u201d Woo explained. \u201cIn 2027, I am getting married. Professionally, I\u2019d love to maybe open a dessert bar or a doughnut shop.\u201d 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 \u201cdessert person.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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\u2019s flavorful creations as they spread beauty to an additional layer of Lessing\u2019s hospitality group: wedding cakes.\n<\/p>\n

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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<\/p>\n

Charles, too, is known for offering unique tweaks on traditional tastes. One of LadyCakes Bakery\u2019s most popular flavors is salted caramel pretzel. Lemon blueberry and \u201cDeath by Chocolate\u201d 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. \u201cThese sketches help cement the art of the cakes,\u201d Charles explained. In another life, by the looks of her flourishing pencil sketches, chef Charles might have been an entirely different type of artist.\n<\/p>\n

One might wonder if working around sugar and sweets and butter might become loathsome. \u201cNot for me,\u201d Charles smiled. \u201cI love all of the flavors and the textures of cake. I am not tired of it.\u201d She said part of the beauty of being a cake artist, lies in the fact that \u201cevery single day I am creating something entirely different than the day before.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beach-inspired cake on sandy shore, crafted by Bess Charles. -COURTESY PHOTO While other seven and eight-year-olds were stirring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-350840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}