CAKEDIVA® - A Life Designed to Be Extraordinary
From New York and network television to celebrity commissions, groundbreaking cake artistry and an extraordinary battle to protect the name she built, Charmaine Jones has spent decades proving that cake can be much more than dessert. Now CAKEDIVA® begins a new chapter in Fort Lauderdale.
Charmaine Jones, Owner of CAKEDIVA®
Before elaborate cakes became television entertainment, before social media turned cake decorating into a global phenomenon, and before the word "couture" was routinely attached to desserts, Charmaine Jones was already creating cakes as works of art.
She is CAKEDIVA®.
Not "a cake diva."
Not a nickname adopted for marketing.
CAKEDIVA® is her professional identity—a name Jones built, defended and ultimately fought to protect.
Behind that name is the story of a multidisciplinary artist whose career has crossed fine art, music, television, fashion, cultural design and extraordinary edible sculpture.
Now, after decades associated with the New York creative world, Jones has brought CAKEDIVA® to Fort Lauderdale, beginning a South Florida chapter in a career that has never followed an ordinary recipe.
AN ARTIST WHO HAPPENED TO DISCOVER CAKE
To understand CAKEDIVA®, it helps to understand that Jones approached cake from the opposite direction of many decorators.
She was an artist first.
Her formal education in fine art developed her understanding of composition, color, proportion, texture, sculpture and dimensional design. Her broader studies and interests extended into music, harmony, composition and theater.
Creativity wasn't confined to a single discipline. That eventually became one of Jones' greatest advantages.
Where another baker might see icing, Jones could see a sculptural material.
Fondant became fabric.
Sugar became flowers.
Chocolate became texture.
A cake board became a stage.
And the finished cake became a performance.
Her artistic influences also came from home. Earlier published profiles described Jones' mother as an accomplished pastry baker and her father as an artist and architect—two influences that seem almost perfectly suited to producing a daughter who would eventually combine food, art and structural design.
But Jones did not initially imagine that cake would become her calling.
Cake found her.
BEFORE CAKE TELEVISION, THERE WAS CAKEDIVA®
Jones began creating cakes professionally in the early 1990s, at a time when the landscape of custom cake design looked considerably different from today.
There was no Instagram. There was no TikTok.
The explosion of cake-centered reality television had not happened.
A spectacular cake traveled largely through photographs, magazines, television appearances and, most powerfully, word of mouth.
Jones built her reputation by making cakes people remembered.
Her early company, Isn't That Special/Outrageous Cakes, operated with a philosophy embedded directly in its name: ordinary wasn't the objective.
A cake needed to surprise. It needed personality. Sometimes it needed audacity.
And eventually people began associating the woman behind those creations with two words that became one: CAKEDIVA.
Published coverage followed.
BET profiled Jones and her work in 2000, describing elaborate creations ranging from lifelike flowers to African-inspired designs and an extraordinary Atlantis commission incorporating a working aquarium with live fish.
Savoy followed with a profile in 2003, documenting Jones' professional cake career and her increasingly imaginative commissions.
Years before today's hypervisual cake culture, CAKEDIVA® was already demonstrating just how far the medium could be pushed.
CAKE AS CULTURAL STORYTELLING
One particularly important dimension of Jones' work has been her willingness to incorporate culture and heritage into sophisticated celebration cakes.
Afrocentric design became part of her creative vocabulary at a time when culturally specific luxury wedding imagery was considerably less visible in the mainstream bridal industry.
African textiles, symbols, patterns and colors could be translated into edible design rather than treated as something separate from an elegant formal celebration.
One of Jones' best-known concepts, "Jumping the Broom," incorporated edible African textile effects into an elaborate wedding design. Her work demonstrated something that seems obvious today but was much less represented then:
Luxury does not require abandoning cultural identity.
Culture itself can be luxurious.
Jones has applied that same philosophy beyond a single tradition, designing for clients and celebrations where heritage, personality and contemporary aesthetics can coexist.
FROM THE CAKE GALLERY TO DAYTIME TELEVISION
CAKEDIVA® also developed an extraordinary relationship with television.
Jones' cakes became associated with two of daytime television's legendary soap operas, All My Children and One Life to Live. For years, her wedding cakes and specialty creations appeared in the elaborate fictional celebrations seen by millions of television viewers.
It was an ideal intersection of Jones' worlds.
Television requires storytelling. Theater requires presentation. Art requires composition. Cake requires craftsmanship.
CAKEDIVA® could bring all four together.
Published accounts of Jones' work repeatedly documented her cakes for the two programs, creating a professional association with daytime television that extended across decades. And while television audiences were watching fictional couples celebrate on screen, Jones was simultaneously creating extraordinary pieces for real-life clients.
WHEN THE REQUEST IS "IMPOSSIBLE"
Some commissions reveal more about an artist than any résumé ever could.
For the opening of Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, Jones created an elaborate four-tier cake incorporating an actual water-filled aquarium—with live fish.
For the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation, associated with the family and legacy of The Notorious B.I.G., the original conversation involved something even more audacious: a life-size representation.
Jones recognized that spectacular does not always mean appropriate. The concept evolved into a design incorporating imagery connected to the legendary rapper without turning the cutting of the cake into something macabre.
That is part of the CAKEDIVA® skill set that cannot easily be taught.
It isn't merely knowing how to execute an idea. It is knowing which idea should be executed.
CELEBRITIES, NATIONAL EXPOSURE AND COMPETITION
As her reputation expanded, so did the audience for Jones' work.
Published profiles over the years have associated CAKEDIVA® with prominent clients and personalities, while her designs appeared in national bridal and lifestyle media.
She also entered the highly competitive world of professional cake competitions.
The Washington Post identified Charmaine Jones of CAKEDIVA Custom Cakes in New York among professional designers who had competed in Food Network cake-decorating competitions.
In 2005, her work reached another national television audience when Jones was among the cake designers associated with NBC's Today wedding coverage.
By this point, CAKEDIVA® wasn't simply a local cake business. It was a recognizable creative identity. And that identity was about to become something Jones would have to fight fiercely to protect.
THE NAME SHE REFUSED TO SURRENDER
Perhaps no chapter better illustrates Jones' determination than the battle over CAKEDIVA® itself.
The name had become inseparable from her professional identity.
When a California business using the name Cake Divas challenged Jones' attempt to federally register CAKEDIVA, the dispute ultimately went before the United States Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
For Jones, this wasn't simply a disagreement over two similar business names.
It was about ownership of an identity she believed she had established through years of work, publicity, clientele and creative achievement.
So she fought.
The legal dispute became long, difficult and, according to Jones, extraordinarily expensive. She estimates that the broader fight to protect her identity stretched across approximately 11 years and ultimately cost nearly half a million dollars.
She did not walk away. And she did not give up the name. On February 23, 2011, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board issued its decision in Cake Divas v. Charmaine Jones.
The opposition was dismissed with prejudice.
CAKEDIVA belonged to Charmaine Jones.
The victory carried meaning far beyond a legal document. Jones had protected the identity attached to her life's work. Today, CAKEDIVA® is federally registered, and Jones subsequently expanded her intellectual-property portfolio with another name reflecting the evolution of her artistic philosophy:
CAKEDIVA COUTURE®.
WHY "COUTURE"?
Couture is an intentional word.
Jones doesn't believe an extraordinary custom cake should look as though another person's name could simply be substituted on top.
The client becomes part of the design. Their personality. Their clothing.
Their culture. Their interests. Their profession. Their favorite colors. The architecture of the venue. The atmosphere of the celebration.
Any of these details can provide the beginning of an idea.
That is the difference between simply decorating a cake and designing one. CAKEDIVA Couture® takes the principles of custom fashion and translates them into edible art: individualized, carefully considered and created for a particular person and moment.
AN ARTIST WITHOUT ONE MEDIUM
Cake, however, has never been Jones' only creative language. Her abilities extend into painting, sewing, knitting, crochet, music and teaching. That versatility matters because one discipline continually informs another.
Fabric can inspire fondant. Architecture can inspire structure. Fashion can suggest silhouette. Music teaches rhythm and repetition. Painting teaches color.
Sculpture teaches dimension. Theater teaches the power of presentation.
Jones has also brought that knowledge into the classroom, teaching creative disciplines and giving other people the opportunity to discover abilities they may not have known they possessed.
For her, teaching is another extension of making.
EXPERIENCE CANNOT BE DOWNLOADED
Today's aspiring cake artist has access to an extraordinary amount of information. A technique can be searched online in seconds. A decorating demonstration can be watched repeatedly. Thousands of cake images can be collected before breakfast.
Jones comes from another era.
She learned through making. Through mistakes. Through deadlines. Through enormous cakes that had to survive transportation. Through clients with seemingly impossible requests. Through television. Through competitions. Through experimentation.
And through the simple requirement that the finished piece had to work when it mattered.
That experience creates something different from technical proficiency. It creates judgment. Knowing when something needs more. Knowing when it needs less. Knowing what will hold. Knowing what will travel. Knowing what will photograph beautifully. Knowing when an idea is spectacular—and when spectacular has crossed the line into ridiculous.
That judgment is part of what decades of experience have given CAKEDIVA®.
NEW YORK BUILT HER. FORT LAUDERDALE GETS THE NEXT CHAPTER.
And now there is South Florida.
Jones has brought CAKEDIVA® to Fort Lauderdale, introducing decades of experience to a region defined by destination weddings, luxury residences, international influences, spectacular venues and people who know how to celebrate.
But she hasn't arrived as an aspiring cake decorator trying to establish an identity.
She arrived with one. She brought the history. The artistry. The television credits. The national exposure. The extraordinary commissions. The cultural design work. The teaching. The scars of entrepreneurship. And the name she fought to keep.
Fort Lauderdale isn't witnessing the birth of CAKEDIVA®. It is getting the next chapter.
SHE IS CAKEDIVA®
There are easier ways to describe Charmaine Jones.
Cake designer.
Fine artist.
Entrepreneur.
Teacher.
Creative director.
Television veteran.
Designer.
Any one of them is accurate.
None is sufficient.
Because after decades of creating, experimenting, competing, teaching and fighting to protect the identity she built, Jones has earned the distinction she insists upon.
She doesn't call herself Cake Diva. She doesn't need someone else to bestow the title upon her.
The history is documented. The work exists. The name survived.
And the trademark is hers.
She is CAKEDIVA®.
And now Fort Lauderdale gets to discover why.
Contact Information:
CAKEDIVA®
Fort Lauderdale
IG: cakediva1_nyc
Tel.: 201-640-9789