“She is all the things a good baker/caterer is,” one reviewer said of Lianne Fernandes-Sears and her works of art. The cake artist and owner of Lianne’s Cakes has a reputation in Guyana for having the most creative and scrumptious cakes.
While her customers enthuse about her one-of-a-kind cakes, Lianne shared the inside scoop on all the hard work and exhausting days when the only thing her tired body would let her do was cry, the thrill of creating cakes and designing them, and the special people in her life who her world revolves around.
The first eight years of her life were spent in Guyana before she migrated to Canada where she continued her schooling and later worked at a bank. She returned to Guyana when her late father fell ill, and it was then she met the love of her life who she later married. They now have four children.
Prior to working at a bank in the North American country, Lianne’s first job was decorating ice cream cakes at Dairy Queen. Sometime after resettling in Guyana, she attended her nephew’s birthday party. His birthday cake, she noted, looked delightful but did not taste quite as good. Knowing that she could make a better tasting cake and one that looked just as beautiful, she decided, when her niece was celebrating her birthday, that she would make the cake herself. Her Dairy Queen experience came in handy then, though not as much as the cake she made was different from the ice cream cakes she had decorated when she was younger.
Baking and decorating then became a side job for Lianne who worked fulltime as a manager at her family’s business, John Fernandes Limited’s Bounty Supermarket. One of the most challenging techniques to learn, she said, was the flowers on her cakes; she has since perfected it. She has learnt numerous other techniques and the tricks in undertaking them over the last eight years, since getting into the cake making and designing business. Of the many cakes she has made to date, tiramisu being among them, Lianne said, her chocolate fudge cake is the most popular.
“I like the more intricate cakes. Sometimes I feel like I don’t really work because it feels like I’m playing with playdough all day. Like when I’m making my figurines and my little details and stuff, when I’m working with fondant. Fondant feels very much like playdough,” Lianne said. Fondant and butter cream are what this artist works with. Icing sugar would never end up in her shopping cart, her online shopping cart that is. Except for maybe her flour and her eggs, everything else she uses to make her cakes is imported.
Lianne is one to accept a challenge even when she does not have a clue how she will take it on. So, when one customer requested a three-tier fondant cake last year, she quickly said yes. She had made such cakes before but because of the intricateness of this particular cake she was scratching her head. She is a self-taught cake artist and YouTube has always been her go-to, so she wasted no time getting there. The cake, she confessed, was not structured properly and was beginning to cave in, but she acted quickly and prevented it from collapsing. Not satisfied with her output, Lianne recalled, she burst into tears. However, she got herself together and made another smaller cake as way of apologizing. The family later told her that they did not need to use the extra cake she sent and in fact had not realized that there was a problem with the first cake.
Lianne’s Cakes caters for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, in fact all occasions. The business does not only concentrate on cakes, but also offers savoury foods, and desserts. Usually, Lianne does the baking and any small catering herself but when there are large orders, she has her assistant help. The biggest event she made a cake for was the wedding of Natalie Najab, the daughter-in-law of renowned businessman Pritipaul Singh.
But there is nothing that could possibly be grand enough to take away from her moments with her family. “My daughter’s birthday was last year,” she shared. “She turned five and we only do big birthdays for when they’re turning 5 and 10… She had an LOL birthday party and she said, ‘Oh mom, this is the best birthday cake, I’ve ever seen in my life’ and she made it seem like if she was 50. But, little things like that I’ll never forget; the way they react to simple little things.”
Her children are 7, 5, 3 and 2 years old, and at such young ages they can be a handful, Lianne admitted, noting that to be able to do her catering she rents an apartment where she does all her baking, decorating and cooking. On days when she has to work the children have a nanny.
With Covid-19, business has come to a standstill. Lianne only bakes for friends and relatives, basically small orders that she can do from home, and takes care of her children. Business, she said, declined after elections but with the Covid-19 lockdown came a lot of orders which she has been declining because she wants to be home with her family. Her two older children have online classes and she needs to keep checking on them, Lianne said, adding that her toddlers keep her the busiest.
Her peak seasons are Christmas and Valentine. Christmas time, the cake artist said, would find her getting home at midnight sometimes. These are her most exhausting days when it comes to cake making. On days like these she eagerly looks forward to hugs and kisses from her children but when she gets home and they are already asleep, she cries. Teacher Appreciation Day can be demanding for business as well.
If business continues to bloom, Lianne sees herself doing bakery and decorating classes. She intends to have her own team to allow for her to do more teaching as well as someday open a café. So far, she has given some cookie and cupcake classes.
To persons wanting to take up cake artistry or anything in art for that matter, Lianne advises that they look at the reality first and see that it is doable before taking such a step.
“It has to be financially secure,” she said. “… If my daughters came to me and said, ‘I want to be an artist…’, it’s great but I think you need to have something that makes money. The book ends with you when you’re an entrepreneur and have your own business.
“If the cake is dry and the butter cream is not good, it’s on me, not on anybody else so it’s a lot of pressure and I think having your own business is a lot harder than anybody would care to admit. You have to put in the time and be willing to make sacrifices. It’s not a steady and secure job. I’m fortunate that my husband has a steady and secure job. Without him, I don’t know how I would have made it…”
Asked what she does in her free time, the artist chuckled saying that she does not have any; free time is a luxury for her.
Lianne has a sweet-tooth and likes crème brûlée.
When it comes to her favourite colours, this Aquarius noted that they change depending on her mood. Currently she likes green and gray.
For a look at Lianne’s gorgeous cakes, she can be followed on Facebook at Lianne’s Cakes.
