Baking Up Cakes!
Baking up Cakes! The Confectionary delights with sweets STORY by kass fincher Bobbie Blackmon of The Confectionary doesn’t remember when she learned to cook. “I’ve always been a cook,” she relates. “My mom owned a restaurant but I didn’t really bake there. I can’t ever remember not cooking. I like cooking better than baking, but baking is what I do.” And her favorite thing to bake? Wedding cakes.
Blackmon started her business on Long Beach Road over 10 years ago. Her partner wanted to do a bakery so that’s what they did. The Confectionary makes cakes, pies, tarts, muffins and cookies. They serve not only the Southport and Oak Island areas, but also Shallotte, Holden Beach, Bald Head and Wilmington as well. Born right here at Dosher Hospital, Blackmon grew up on a farm with tobacco, corn and cows. The work ethic she learned as a youngster translates today to long hours and a commitment to unique quality for her customers. Sometimes working 100 hours a week during the summer wedding season, Blackmon still manages to make time for her family of a husband, two kids and two dogs. Her husband Rhett is the owner of Blackmon Building, a residential construction company on Oak Island. Daughter Page is a teacher at South Brunswick and son Hunter is a community college student. The process of making a wedding cake is a little hairy, according to Blackmon. “You take a bunch of frosting and cake layers and make something that’s truly art. Then you put it in your truck, get it where it’s supposed to go, exactly on time. It’s a miracle that everything comes together,” she says. In actuality, Blackmon’s description of her process seems somewhat modest. She says it takes 6-10 hours to make a wedding cake. And the brides want everything to be perfect and on trend. Our location on the coast means that many of her cakes are beachy in theme. But other trends change from year to year, and that requires the baker to keep up with those trends. A quick Google search reveals some of the current wedding cake trends, as listed in Brides Magazine. Some of the more natural styles they point to include the naked (no frosting) cake, the geode (like the rock), the organic castle (with fruits and berries) and the metallic ombre (shaded) cake. The more elegant trends include the white-on-white cake, the gold nugget (gold leaf) cake and the feather cake. Of course the choice of cake – both ingredients and artistic theme – ultimately is up to the bride and groom. They don’t want little bride and groom figurines on top anymore, according to Blackmon. She often has requests for written messages on the cakes. A recent message she wrote on a cake expressed a sigh of relief – “Finally!” Another summed up the proposal response from the bride-to-be: “I said yes!” Whether light-hearted or elegant, Blackmon enjoys creating a unique and artistic result for her clients. Her business is mostly word-of-mouth; even customers from out of town are referred by their friends who had beach weddings and loved Blackmon’s creations. And since the wedding industry is very active here, she often gets referrals from vendors she has worked with in the past. “Vendors will refer you – it’s all about showing up on time and coming with your ‘A ‘game,” Blackmon says. As anyone in the wedding business knows, the bride and groom can be tough to please. But based on her success, Bobbie Blackmon seems to have found the sweet spot.
Contact:
The Confectionary 4346 Long Beach Road Oak Island, NC 28465 (910) 457-9310
