Business Profile: Emma's Cakes is Award-Winning Bakery

Do you need an assortment of cupcakes or a slice of cake for a meeting? Perhaps you need a last-minute dessert for a dinner party? If you’re in the mood for something sweet, stop by  and meet Emma and Ed.

Emma and Edward Ford graduated from Jefferson High School in Tampa and became sweethearts after Emma’s sister’s wedding. Ed was the best man. They have two children and four grandchildren.

Jefferson High School’s curriculum included a food production and management class. Emma was hooked after one class demonstration in cake decorating. She has been baking for 35 years.

Emma became a professional cake decorator at Wright’s Gourmet, and then she moved to Jeff’s Gourmet Pies, which produced wholesale cakes and pies to restaurants. After that, she took a job with Albertson’s Supermarket and became Albertson’s bakery manager. She retired in a similar role at BJ’s Wholesale.

Ed retired from the Hillsborough County school system after 32 years as supervisor of custodians.

“Emma’s dream had been to own her own bakery,” he said. “It was time to make it happen.”

They opened Emma’s Cakes in the Sherwood Forest shopping center in Temple Terrace in February 2008.

Ed handles the management and accounting for the bakery. Emma does all the baking.

“I’m the tester,” Ed said.

Everything sold is made fresh on the premises. Only butter and Emma’s natural ingredients go into her butter-cream icing.

Carryout items include cookies, Danishes, scones, rolls, bread (Italian and wheat), cakes (whole and by the slice) and cupcakes. Dessert cakes include carrot, coconut, red velvet, chocolate, German chocolate, lemon and sour cream pound. 

The best-selling items are Emma’s special recipe red velvet cakes and cupcakes. The cupcake best seller is the assorted pack of nine, which includes red velvet, carrot, chocolate and coconut.

Emma’s Cakes won the “Best Specialty Restaurant” award in 2009 and 2010 from the Taste of the Terrace, Temple Terrace Business Expo. The business also won in the “Best Of Northeast” sponsored by the Northeast News and Tribune Readers’ Poll. It won for “Best Desserts” in 2008, 2009 and 2011; for “Best Bakery” in 2009 and 2011; and for “Best New Business” in 2008.

When you go in to order a decorated cake, bring with you a photo or item that you want your cake to look like. She can make any kind of cake in any kind of shape, but she said she doesn’t do X-rated designs.

Some specialty cakes Emma has created include edible: hats, purses, footballs, soccer balls, pyramids, princess dresses, guitars, Tiffany boxes, sweet 16’s and Vera Bradley suitcases.

A two-day notice is recommended for a decorated sheet cake. A two-week notice is recommended for specialty sizes and shapes. Allow additional time if the cake is for a holiday or special event. Christmas and Thanksgiving cakes require one-month lead-time, and Emma is usually booked four weeks in advance for the holidays.

Although Emma does the baking and Ed does the tasting, additional hands are needed. Grandchildren Myeasha and Michael Patterson are both students at Freedom High School, live with Emma and Ed and help out in the bakery.

Myeasha said she enjoys art and expresses her creativity in the bakery with fondant. Fondant is a pliable, edible frosting that can be cut and shaped into designs. These designs are then used to decorate cakes.

The bakery also carries a large collection of cake-decorating supplies and boxes.

If you need a wedding cake, retirement party dessert or a cupcake-for-one, stop in and see Emma and Ed.

Reach them at ecakes@tampabay.rr.com.