Competitive Cake Decorator

Cake decorator Cathy Hansen has been making and decorating cakes for 45 years. Her career started when she ordered a cake for her sister-in-law’s baby shower and thought, “I could do a better job than this!” when she went to pick it up.

Springing into action, Cathy decided to take several cake decorating classes. One of the first lessons she learned was that decorating cakes comes with many intricacies to make it look so beautiful.

For example, when you write with a pencil or pen on paper, you just use your hand. With writing words on a cake, you have to use your whole arm.

With practice, she became a master at the technique, and even went on to write the Lord’s Prayer on a cake for a competition. The cake won a ribbon, beating out other friendly competitors.

“I beat my friend and she said, “It was because I didn’t have a prayer!” Cathy laughed.

Eventually Cathy went on to become the President of the Johnson County cake club, called the Classic Confections Cake Club, for more than 20 years.

Along with her club, Cathy ran a cake business out of her house. She’s made wedding cakes, birthday cakes, office celebration cakes, baby shower cakes, or any other cake you could think of!

One of the ways she found inspiration for decorating the cakes was through party napkins or other party accessories. She could match a cake to any party theme.
Cathy affectionately recalls one of the best parts about her business was giving her “mess ups” to her husband’s workplace.

“If there hadn’t been a cake for a while his coworkers would say, “haven’t you messed up any cakes recently?!” Cathy laughed.

Now Cathy enjoys giving her baked goods to her neighbors and friends at Lakeview Village. She said it’s not hard finding people who want to eat cake!

Watch the story to learn more about Cathy and the cake decorating process.