Encounter #15: Tasty Masterpieces with Joanna
This month's Encounter is with 9 to 5'er artist, Joanna Ma. Joanna is a native New Yorker who now resides in California where she works as a biomedical engineer. Outside of her engineering profession, Joanna has a passion for cake art and in 2013, she founded her own cake decorating business called, It’s Jo Cake! For her Encounter, Joanna shares with the Encounters community a few of her cake masterpieces as well as provides a glimpse into the creative process of cake decorating. If you would like to learn more about Joanna and her passion for cake design, please check out her bio on The Characters page of this website. I also encourage you to check out Joanna's blog entry on the Engineering page to learn more about about her profession in biomedical engineering.
I first Encountered Joanna in my freshman year of college when we both were members of our school's step team. Due to different majors and years, Joanna and I did not hang out much but I always thought that she was very sweet. A few years after we had graduated, while perusing aimlessly on Facebook, I came to discover that Joanna's knack for sweetness extended beyond just her personality. I am a fiend for sweets so any pictures of said "food" will always catch my eye. One day, I saw that Joanna had posted a few pictures of very beautiful and whimsical cakes and, as a sweet tooth, I felt it my duty to investigate further. What I came to discover was that Joanna had started her own cake decorating business and I was impressed by not only the intricacy and creativity of her cake masterpieces, but also by her ability to start her own business. From experience, the balance of passions, career, and personal life, is not easy therefore, I find those whose passion drives them to see their dreams actually come to life to be inspiring, since it takes a lot of hardwork, determination, sacrifice, and dedication. To me, Joanna is one of those inspiring individuals.
Joanna's cakes are creative and intricate works of art and at times, complex feats of engineering (check out her purple dinosaur cake!). As Joanna describes in her Encounter, the wonder of cake decorating is how these structures and forms are all made with edible materials and the joy of it is just that - you can eat them! I have yet to try one of Joanna's amazing cakes (since, what seems to be my very bad cake luck, I do not live in the Bay area) but, from the looks of what I've seen, they are bound to be incredibly delicious. For her Encounter, Joanna provides a glimpse into the cake art process and it becomes evident that Joanna is passionate about this art form through the time that she puts in to creating her masterpieces, from baking and sculpting the fluffy cake foundations to her meticulous attention to detail as she takes icing and turns it into art. Joanna is a true definition of a 9 to 5'er artist and I am so happy that she will now share her story and tasty masterpieces with the Encounters community.
And now, without further ado, I present to you our Encounter with engineer and cake designer, Joanna. Enjoy!