A choclatey makeover of an Erlenmeyer flask (the conical flask you find in chemistry labs) has earned Burnaby's Jenna Rawji a coveted spot in Canada’s Cross Country Cake Off.
Is the flask-shaped-cake actually cake?
It was, she said, and it is her story in the form of a cake.
Jenna Rawji is a nurse by day and a baker by night.
As a 12-year-old girl, she would often make her way into the family kitchen and witness her mom making delicious chocolate orange cakes.
Her mother had just purchased a Kitchen Aid mixer, and taught little Jenna tidbits about baking. The young girl learned the basics of baking, and blossomed into a baker in he own right, teaching herself skills through YouTube and other online resources.
Rawji loved baking, but life took her in the direction of a career in health care. She worked at the BC Cancer Research Centre, initially. The later years would take her to the Royal Columbian Hospital, where she should work as a nurse for a year after attending nursing school.
But she never forgot her first love. When she was in university, she started a small business called Sweet Tooth Baking as a creative outlet for the baker in her.
Her devotion to baking kept growing, and by April 2022, she would put her nursing license on pause to pursue her passion for baking full-time.
She mulled over the idea of expanding her cake business, and started filming YouTube videos, putting her creations in front of the camera, which would eventually set her up for a future in television.
By the end of 2022, Rawji would become one of the 24 contestants from all of Canada (eight bakers from each of the host cities – Vancouver, Toronto, and Halifax) to participate in the holiday edition of the ‘Cross Country Cake Off’ baking show, which premieres Dec. 15 on CTV.
Cross Country Cake Off
When one of the producers reached out to Rawji for the pitch for the show, Rawji was thrilled. She immediately applied. After all, it felt like it was meant to be — she was trying to create a niche for all things cake including decorating and design. She was excited about the opportunity but didn't take it for granted that she would hear back. Just when she was about to give up on the idea of being chosen, she got an interview, and then a spot in the qualifier round in Vancouver.
All Rawji wants is to have a good experience, meet new and fun people, and enjoy being on TV.
The icing on the cake will be bagging the Cross Country Cake Off champion title and the $50,000 prize.
“In terms of the qualifier, I didn't know or I don't know what the competition is going to be bringing to the table,” she said. “So the challenge is to see how best I can portray my story through my cake. And hopefully it's good enough to get me into the next round.”
Most people let their words tell a story, but Rawji let the design of her cake speak for her.
For the qualifier round, the whole design of her cake was based on her career transition — resulting in her choice of the Erlenmeyer flask shape, given its association with science labs.
She created little molecules along the base of her cake to demonstrate her time and research in an ascending pattern. She made little fondant pills to demonstrate her time in nursing and the medical field. And then she transitioned out of the pills into a floral pattern to demonstrate her love for creating abstract designs, cakes and colourful creations.
While Rawji loves chocolate cake, and would describe her perfect creation as a chocolatey cake infused with a chocolate-expresso combination, the flavour that got her a spot on the cake off was a little more nuanced — it was an Earl Grey-based cake paired with chocolate butter cream. To give it some texture and added crunch, she added hazelnut praline.
Rawji thought the pairing blended nicely — the nuttiness and the dark caramel tones complemented the Earl Grey component. She also added a little bit of orange zest in her butter cream, tying it all together.
Jenna Rawji was thrilled to meet fun people from different places in Canada through the competition. As she spoke to contestants from Yukon and Alberta, she learned a lot about her own journey as well as theirs, making memories for a lifetime.
The Cross Country Cake Off hosted by cookbook author Mary Berg (Masterchef Canada) and Vancouver pastry chef Andrew Han (Kouign Cafe) premieres on CTV, CTV.ca and the CTV app with a special two-night event beginning Thursday, Dec. 15 at 9 p.m.. It continues Friday, Dec.16; Monday, Dec. 19; and the finale will be broadcast on Tuesday, Dec. 20, where the top two bakers from each region compete to claim the $50,000 prize, and the title.
You can also check out her other holiday creations like CupCakes and hot chocolate bombs on her Instagram page. You can also say hi to her in person at the Brentwood Mall as she sets up shop for the last weekend of the local makers market.
