Decorating Cakes and Building Community in Moose Jaw

Lieutenant Almeta Ward heard over and over again that folks were surprised to learn that The Salvation Army had a church in Moose Jaw. She was moved to create something that would welcome folks to the church, offer an interesting activity and build community. So, she decided to offer an eight-week cake decorating course. Participation has grown steadily since its first offering. They recently wrapped up their third session, and all involved have enjoyed learning a new skill and making new friends.

“In our conversations, people would say, ‘I didn’t realize that you guys had a church – we just thought it was a thrift store and family services downtown.’ So we thought, what can we do so that people would know they’re coming to the Salvation Army church,” says Almeta.

“I enjoy cake decorating. I’m not a professional, but I enjoy it, and it’s something that I thought, ‘Let’s try it and see what happens.’ It was slow at the beginning, trying to get people signed up. But once it started, it’s been growing,” she explains.

The course runs one hour a week for eight weeks, and participants are given all the tools they need to start their cake-decorating journey and to build on their skills from week to week. The kit includes a turntable for decorating a cake, a piping bag, tips and more. The students start with decorating cupcakes and learn different techniques each week, culminating in decorating a whole cake and voting for the best decorating.

“When they come in, most of them don’t know how to hold a piping bag. And then at the end of eight weeks, it’s amazing what they’ve accomplished,” Almeta says.

“The first week, they showed us how to make the icing, and then we had sheets that you practice on for making flowers and other designs. Then, another week we learned to make flowers; we made roses. And then we had cupcakes, so we decorated the cupcakes with the piping. Then we learned how to write with the icing to say happy birthday or happy Mother’s Day,” explains participant Susan Wendzina, a woman in her 70s who took part with her daughter, granddaughter and daughter-in-law.

“It was always a dream of mine to be a professional cake decorator,” says 13-year-old participant Abigail Bowles. “I think it really did help. I liked how we got to learn how to pipe flowers. It’s not easy, but Almeta was the best at teaching. She made it so simple,” she says.

For Almeta, journeying alongside these budding cake decorators has been fulfilling in more ways than one. She is grateful for the opportunity to get to know people in her community that she may not have met, work with families and watch them grow their skills together, build confidence and help them believe in themselves.

“This is all about building relationships,” says Almeta. “There was one lady, and she said, ‘I’ll never get it. I’ll never learn how to do this.’ And I said, ‘Yes, you will, that’s okay. Where are you struggling?’ Being able to journey alongside them and to encourage them. And she got it! When I hear that aha moment, like ‘I got it!’ It’s like I’m a proud mama,” Almeta explains.

“It was something I always wanted to do but never did. Because I’m one of those people – I didn’t think I could ever do that. And my daughter is the same way. And it showed me, yes, you can. I couldn’t see myself doing that. But it really taught me that you could do more than you think you can,” says Susan.

“My favourite part was when we had a little competition at the end of the course,” says Abigail. “During the class, we would decorate a cake, and it was kind of like a challenge who decorated the best cake, and we got to use all the techniques and everything we learned during the cake decorating class,” she says.

“At the end, we have this little graduation,” says Almeta. “Their family gets to come, and we have finger foods. Then everyone votes for a cake – that they don’t know who made – and whoever gets the most votes for their decorated cake wins a $50 gift card from Dairy Queen, and everyone gets to take their cakes home,” she explains.

Though Almeta and Lester Ward have been assigned to a posting in Bermuda that will begin later in 2023, the course will be offered again in September, thanks to the dedication of Moose Jaw’s community and family services coordinator, Sonya.

“I had that conversation with Sonya and asked, ‘Is this something you’re comfortable doing?’ Because it was definitely out of her comfort zone. And she said, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to drop it because it’s good for the community,’” Almeta says.

For more information on the next offering of the Moose Jaw cake decorating class, call 306-692-5899 or follow their Instagram and Facebook pages for updates. Thanks to the local Co-Op for subsidizing the cost of the cupcakes and some of the materials.