May’s Pink Cake Boxer of the Month

So you have all been waiting so patiently for my post on May’s Pink Cake Boxer of the Month! I am so sorry it has taken me so long … I apologize especially to the Pink Cake Boxer of the Month…Cathy Olate!

Cathy joined our Pink Cake Box family in November 2007. We share a similar background, as she too interned with Ron Ben-Israel Cakes in NYC after finishing the Pastry Arts Program at ICE, also in NYC. Prior to that, Cathy decorated cakes for a number of years at a cake shop in Texas.

To fully appreciate Cathy….let me bring you back to the first day that she came in to trail…way back in November. She had told me that she could make sugar flowers…so naturally I was curious at her ability. I asked her to make some. She asked me where my cutters, centers, needle tools, etc. were located. I laughed and showed her the few cutters I had. It ended there. Besides a ball tool, some floral wire and a pasta machine I didn’t have any of the tools she had grown accustomed to. It was then that she became the McGyver of Pink Cake Box. Somehow she managed without any of the items she had previously used. I think maybe she widdled a needle tool out of a dowel and fashioned some forms out of sugarpaste…haha. At any rate, it was instant love, and so began her Pink Journey!

Soon after starting, Cathy was promoted to the Creative Manager. She is responsible for managing the sugar elements that go on the cakes each week. She holds the master list of what needs to be made…everything from pregnant ladies, to mini bottles of vodka, to sugar flowers…to sugar brooches. Whether she is making them herself, or delegating to others, Cathy has a fantastic ability to oversee the projects while maintaining a calm that I truly envy. Someone told her that she was the ying to my yang…and I agree! When I am freaking out (Which happens pretty often), she is cool, calm and collected. Then once every other leap year, when she loses it…I can be the rock She is extremely talented, and has a truly remarkable ability to recreate almost anything out of sugar. I feel blessed to have her as part of the team - as she truly excels each day as a manager and more so as an artist.

Congratulations Cathy - and Thank you for all of your dedication to me and Pink Cake Box!