The Digest | New Jersey Magazine
Issue link: https://magazines.vuenj.com/i/1369261
Current cake trends champion a "bigger is better" style, as many couples who have postponed their dates and downsized their receptions are enticed to invest in detail, luxury, and grandeur. Deffense worked with a client that requested a 32-tier, ten-foot creation, her biggest undertaking in her one-woman show. Intricate detailing like sugar bead embroidery and hand-painted designs that mimic the proverbial fairytale wedding are popular among clients. The COVID-19 global pandemic flatlined substantial business for Deffense as wedding celebrations postponed. But Deffense's resilience and independent business model kept her passions afloat. Keen to the times, the cake artist and five-time cookbook author switched gears to consolidate her brand's social media presence on Instagram. To show a depth of artistry in a much-needed healthy style for the quarantine couch potatoes, Deffense released her fifth book, The Art of Salad, the first translated in English from Portuguese. The beautifully curated publication swaps gears from sweets to salad, incorporating fresh, feel-good ingredients while offering a healthier medium for artistic creativity in the kitchen. No matter what life brings, Julie Deffense demonstrates a seasoned skillset of design, creativity, and ambition. Next, Deffense hopes to enter the television realm to share her extensive knowledge with the audience that helped support her brand. But the master cake baker intends to leave out the "scandals, melodrama, and toppling over, unsupported cakes," instead she aims to share the uncertainty, but the beauty of jumping into the unknown. "As hard as it may be to follow a different path, if it feels like the right thing to do, you have to go on and try it. I would not trade it in for anything," said Deffense. Photo credit: A ssunção Branco V U E N J .C O M 66