iN PHOTOS: Filipino baker puts lifelong passion into cake creations in the Shuswap 

A cake specialist at a small grocery store in a small town in the Shuswap is wowing customers with his creative, lifelike cakes.

Jay-ar Quiambao spends part of his shifts making custom cakes and the other part pouring his lifelong cake making passion into creating imaginative works of art.

“I’m trying to think of original ideas where people will enjoy the designs and at the same time really enjoy the taste and flavours of the cakes,” he said.

Quiambao’s latest creations include realistic looking turkeys for Thanksgiving, and severed body parts and brains for Halloween.

It has taken years of dedication, and trial and error for Quiambao to master his art, which he did mostly on his own.

Growing up in the Philippines, Quiambao dreamed of being a pastry chef, but didn’t have the money to go to culinary school. Instead, he studied hotel and restaurant management, and when an opportunity to work at a restaurant in Dubai came up just over a decade ago, he took it.  

“I had to start from scratch, so rather than becoming a pastry chef, I started as a kitchen helper,” he said. “The salary was not enough to pursue my dream because I was financially helping family in the Philippines. I started making cakes at home, making basic cakes and trying to improve myself little by little.”

After several years, Quiambao was promoted to assistant pastry chef, then took a job as a pastry chef at a different company where he made custom cakes for big special events like weddings.

“They were all custom cakes, they told me the idea they wanted me to do and I tried to create it,” he said.

A year-and-a-half ago he came to Canada to work at the bakery at Blind Bay Village Grocer. In February, he started managing the cake section and that’s when he was able to let his creativity flow.

“For Halloween and Thanksgiving, my manager told me to prepare something for the display and I didn’t want to make something common,” he said. “I thought, why not try to make a realistic turkey or amputated feet.

“The manager told me at the start we need to focus on standard cakes, but when they saw the designs coming out said I can do whatever I want, and I can’t go anywhere.”  

Blind Bay resident Sarah Tokarek has been shopping at the store for 15 years.

“In the past the cakes were not too original and not baked from scratch so I didn’t buy them much,” she said. “All of a sudden, I saw the bakery changing. I was in there at the right time on Halloween when the display was stocked and looked amazing. I was like ‘who is doing this?’”

Tokarek introduced herself to Quiambao and took a few photographs of the baker and his delicious artworks to share on her social media page called Shuswap Adventure Girl where she promotes her community.

“He makes cake pops from scratch,” she said. “The ones we had were little tomb stones, they were super good and so delicious on the inside, they were super moist. The next time I was in he gifted me one that was made into a little puppy and it was really good.”

Quiambao is getting a big response from other shoppers and cake orders are increasing.

“They’re saying they appreciate me a lot,” he said. “When I was working in Dubai my confidence wasn’t high, this is all new to me.”

Village Grocer is located at 2798 Balmoral Road in Blind Bay.