Cake Therapy
Cake Therapy is a heartwarming and uplifting podcast that celebrates the transformative power of baking therapy. Hosted by Dr. Altreisha Foster, the passionate baker, entrepreneur and advocate behind Cake Therapy, this podcast is a delightful blend of inspiring stories, expert insights and practical baking tips. Each episode takes listeners on a journey of self-discovery, emotional healing and connection through the therapeutic art of baking.
Cake Therapy
The UTECH Connection with Marcia Fraser-Cummings: How Cake Therapy Impacts Education in Jamaica
When passion meets purpose, transformation happens. That's exactly what Marcia Fraser-Cummings brings to her students at Jamaica's University of Technology, where baking isn't just taught as a vocational skill but as a pathway to empowerment and emotional well-being.
Fraser-Cummings shares her remarkable journey from academic studies to pursuing her true calling in baking technology. Despite societal expectations that "smart" students shouldn't pursue hands-on careers, she followed her heart and now leads the next generation of hospitality professionals. Her story reminds us that sometimes the most fulfilling paths aren't the most conventional ones.
What truly sets this conversation apart is the innovative educational approach Fraser-Cummings champions. By embracing technology in the classroom—encouraging digital portfolios, implementing WhatsApp groups, and integrating the Cake Therapy Podcast as a curriculum resource—she meets students where they are. This modern methodology has yielded tangible results, with graduates securing international positions and scholarships through their baking portfolios.
The episode explores fascinating research collaborations with Jamaica's Scientific Research Council, where students develop flours from indigenous provisions like cassava and breadfruit. These projects connect culinary innovation with cultural heritage while addressing modern dietary needs like gluten intolerance.
Perhaps most powerful is Fraser-Cummings' philosophy of empowerment: "I want people to understand that there is a level of empowerment that practical skills actually give you." Her commitment to showing students they can "do everything with happiness and love" transcends technical training, offering a profound life lesson about finding joy in creation.
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Welcome to the Cake Therapy Podcast a slice of joy and healing, with your host, dr Altricia Foster. This is a heartwarming and uplifting space that celebrates the transformative power of baking therapy. The conversations will be a delightful blend of inspirational stories, expert insights and practical baking tips. Each episode will take listeners on a journey of self-discovery, emotional healing and connection through the therapeutic art of baking. There's something here for everyone, so lock in and let's get into it.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Cake Therapy Podcast. I'm excited to join you again for another episode to bring you a slice of joy and healing. Before we get started, though, I want to thank everyone who subscribed, everyone who's downloaded our app and is listening to the podcast through the app or via the app. That's so dope. Send us your thoughts and feedback, tell me how you're using the app. You can leave that in our comments and stuff. Continue to share. You know the Cake Therapy Foundation, the podcast and everything that we're doing on your various you know community outlets. We are in the trenches, we're doing the work for the girl and we're hoping that there's a girl or a boy who's listening to our podcast and has become interested in baking. Today is an important guest, and you're going to learn why in a few minutes.
Speaker 2:We have the pleasure of speaking with Ms Marcia Fraser-Cummings. She's an educator out of Jamaica, she's a culinary expert there, and she is dedicated to shaping the next generation of hospitality and tourism professionals. She is a lecturer at the illustrious University of Technology. She's currently the awards coordinator at University of Technology and she is the liaison with industry partners. You know, when it comes to hospitality and tourism management, where baking technology and cake design and cake artistry falls under that purview. We've had the pleasure of partnering with her in Jamaica. We've the Cake Therapy Foundation and Sugar Spoon Desserts donated baking supplies to that institution.
Speaker 2:One it's the institution that I got my start. It's where I got my start. The University of Technology is very, very important to me. You know, it's like when things are important or things are, you know, make me feel a certain type of way. I repeat my descriptive words, you know. So the University of Technology is very important to me. So, you know, join us as we delve into the story of Marcia, and not only that. I want to talk to her about why the Cake Therapy Podcast has become a tool, a tool for them at the university. So welcome, marcia, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3:I actually. It's so fortunate that you that today. Today we're doing this because we're having one of our busiest days in the calendar here at UTEC. We have our open house, our open house day, where actually two days really, where we have students from all over the island coming in. So yeah, it's for tutors. You know, this is good. I just left the auditorium and there are hundreds of them in there, so we have a nice display set up of all cakes and pastries and so on, but it's great.
Speaker 2:We should have had a conversation there. Maybe it would have been too loud.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, we should have. Yes, I'm sorry, it's 2020.
Speaker 2:It's okay. Welcome, though. I'm happy to be able to chat with you a little bit on our podcast. We are hoping to reach the masses, to teach them about the art history and the benefits of baking in itself, and that we not only have space to tell them that it's a vocational skill, but it's something that could be your own therapy and it's something that you can use to center yourself in spaces, and I'm also, for the last couple of weeks, we've been sharing with our listeners that you've listed it as a resource.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, Absolutely, Absolutely. Because you know our new students, they're all into the tech and they, you know they spend a lot of time on the gadgets and so on, and so this is as good a thing as any for them to just be engrossed in. Yes, absolutely Right. And as a matter of fact, I found that, you know, from the forums that we've had over the last couple of years, I've introduced them where they actually I give them a prompt and they post their responses, and so this forum will be a means of them getting even greater knowledge, so that they can broaden their horizon and respond.
Speaker 2:You know, accordingly, yeah and I think you know. When I heard that you were thinking about using it as a resource, I thought you know. We've had so many conversations with cake artists from all over the world.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little bit of exposure. So we're happy, we're happy here at the foundation and we're happy, you know, for our listeners to get to know Ms Marsha Fraser Cummings. So how is the name?
Speaker 3:It's really, it's excellent. I mean, we've been having a lot of rain, the sun is shining. We were good, we're really good. I suppose everyone else were a little bit anxious about the elections coming up, but we know all will be well. You know, we're seeing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course All will be well everywhere. You know, when elections are looming, people tend to get a little bit anxious. Yes, but yes.
Speaker 3:Yep, absolutely. And you know, doc, I just wanted to say here, just you know, right up front, say how grateful we are that you have partnered with us over the years and to let you know that your first inaugural awardee for the award that you launched here at the university, she, will in fact be graduating this November with an honors degree. So we're grateful Absolutely. I'll send you further particulars, but she will be graduating Congratulations to her.
Speaker 2:You know what we need to have her on the podcast. How about?
Speaker 3:that, oh, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely about her journey.
Speaker 2:So yep um, thank you for sending her info and we'll have her on the podcast but we're just excited to dive into, like to get to know you a little bit to share with our listeners. When did you get started in this baking in the hospitality and tourism?
Speaker 3:Right, right. Well, the truth and point of fact just before leaving high school, aeons ago, I actually had a passion for baking. But I don't know if you fully realize this or impact your listeners, but back in the day, it was thought that if you were smart, or considered to be smart, if you had done your A-levels, you were not really to be doing hands-on things. Were you aware of that? Yeah, Exactly yes.
Speaker 2:That's how we were organized that, yeah, exactly yes, that's how we were mobilized, right, right.
Speaker 3:So after I went to the University of the West Indies, I actually, you know, came back. I came to Cass College of Arts, science and Technology because I mean, yeah, I did a first degree in social sciences with language and literature, because back at that time that was the thing to do. You know, you did your aloes, you went to university, but I had a passion for food and baking especially. So after that I came in fact to um, to what is called the University of Technology Cass, and did in fact a diploma in um in baking technology, and our baking school at the time was, in fact, was just getting off the ground. I mean, we had then begun partnership with the US Wheat Associates and the Bacon Association of Jamaica.
Speaker 3:So, you know, after we in fact got scholarships after that, myself and the other technologists who were here Mr Piper and Mr Edwards and so we in fact went to the American Institute of Bacon in Kansas, Manhattan, and so I actually spent some years in the US and about 10 years really, and then I came back to give back and to lecture here at UTEC. So technically I fall under that area of the people who do the formulation for the great fancy work. So we specialize in formulating, you know, the balances for the products on which you want to put all your great fancy work. Yes, it has been a journey for some 20, 23 years, but it gives me such pleasure now just to be able to refer my students to people in industry. You know and um, so we do quite a bit here at the university in um training and insurance and partner with the big companies we've supplied them with with our hands-on graduates who are really work-ready.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So you've given our listeners a trajectory from COST. You know COST, the College of Science and. Technology to what we now know as UTEC. I attended when it was the UTEC, you know, so I'm going to send that out.
Speaker 3:It's the youngest, the earliest.
Speaker 2:I'm a proud of the space you know at this university for such a long time, one as a student, one as a lecturer and now leading in the space. How do you approach teaching the millennials, the students now? What is your approach to teaching them food service management?
Speaker 3:Right. Well, you know, doc, to be honest, I try to reach them at the level at which they are. You know, basically I've tried not to be, you know, not to talk down or away from. I try to engage them and hence the podcast, because I know that they're getting a lot of their information, you know, by social media. So I actually try to reach them where they're at. So we have a very vibrant WhatsApp group right and a podcast or forum.
Speaker 3:I really do try to engage them and over the past couple of years we have in fact developed a portfolio for them so they use their phones. You know, lots of lecturers don't like for them to use the phones in the club. I actually want you to use your phone, I want you to use your phone and take pictures of the products that you're doing so that you can in fact, you know, have a portfolio ready so that you can in fact use it. In fact, about two semesters ago, one of our students actually used her portfolio to get a job at the New York Key State Factory, you know, and so, yes, so this is what I try to do to engage them at the level that they're at.
Speaker 3:And, you know, the researchers show that they learn best from themselves, their peers. So we've actually we have a number of group projects that they do and they're all related. So once you're involved in a group project, you're actually involved in tracing whatever you're doing from the beginning to the end, and then you give your modern spin on it. You say where we're at, you know, like the trends now, like, for example, yesterday, one of the students, they were looking at sweetness and then they actually, you know, came right back to a wonderful present day, you know presentation of what is happening now, and so I try to engage them in that way.
Speaker 2:You know, not just the stuff that is in the book but we try to, you know, not just the stuff that is in the book, but we try to, you know, to take it out of that. Yeah, make it real. Yeah, of course, and you have to make it work. You have to meet them where they are and that's what we do at the foundation. You know, with our curriculum we try to meet the girls where they do, where we are. So we created an app. That's another resource for you.
Speaker 2:Now we have an app. It it's Cake Therapy app. It's got articles, it's got access to our food blog. So your students will find we do have an app called the Cake Therapy app, because we believe so much like our youth now have. They have the phone in the palm of their hands. So our idea behind it is always having your recipe book in the palm of your hand so you can bake on the floor. And we are really excited about our connection with the University of Technology Me being a past student from there, yes, and then now baking in the spare. Tell me about the students. You know when our foundation donated those equipment.
Speaker 3:What were their feelings? Listen, I'm going to send you over some pics of those wonderful pics that we did on the turntable. I mean, that was just so amazing. Yesterday they were using the ice and pooms and the pallet ice. It really has made a difference because pretty much, you know, everybody has stuff. No, we don't have to be boring, you know, and so it makes that much easier the teaching and learning activities. So it's wonderful. I'm going to send you those pics of some lovely cakes that were done on those turntables and you know they were just like spinning and I said, okay, guys, easy, easy, easy with this, you know, but they were very excited and it's awesome, dog, we are so, so grateful, but I will send you little things, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know, I find that when they really have their own equipment, like it's theirs, they take care of it, they clean it up because they don't want to. So that's why I was like, okay, I know what it is with my girls here, they have their own set of equipment. Did you get the same feedback from the youth there in the class? Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Because, in fact, some of the ones that we had been using, like the turntables. They were a bit you know oldish, they were you know nothing and, surprisingly, when my lab tech said, okay, okay, okay, students, clean up, they just rushed to the sink area and I'm saying, wow, I never saw this. It inspired them to actually take care of them. I didn't have to ask for anybody to bring them up and for them to be inspected, everybody just did it was like clockwork, it was really inspiring.
Speaker 3:I said I said a prayer for you. You know I really did, because it's just I'm grateful, we're grateful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good. They pray for me all the time. That is really, really good to hear. Talk to me a little bit about the awards. Like you're deeply involved with the annual award for excellence at the university, I would like to know from you what does this mean to your students and how do you see it influencing future generations of students.
Speaker 3:Okay, thank you for the opportunity, dr Bossa. In fact, you know, every year when we take the awards out really just to get them cleaned up and polished by the trophy book and students see them, they say, oh, miss, miss, oh, geez, miss, I didn't know that we have awards like this. Who do I get one of these, you know. So students are all the time interested, you know, in excellence. They may not always be doing the stuff to, you know, to achieve it, but actually they are excited by the thought of getting a trophy. Yeah, especially in our area where you know you don't always have to be getting a 95 for everything. We've worked over the years ensure the students who may just have an artistic ability is able and in fact we do have an award like that for artistic ability and creativity. Uh, so we actually um have that award and a number of other awards that are not necessarily GPA related. So they have a GPA of 3.4 or above to get an award here in our school. Or if they're really very creative and, you know, well appointedappointed in their environment and so on, they also have that opportunity. You don't always have to be an A student necessarily, and every year when we have orientation activities, we introduce them to these awards and medallions that we offer and they are in fact excited.
Speaker 3:And throughout the semester students will come to me in my office and say, miss, how am I doing? Miss, am I, am I on the track for any award? Right? And I said, okay, you know, I'm gonna look at your progress report and so on, but remember, you have to try to, you know, maintain the thing in all the and I try to give them hope. But really the awards are important and that is one reason I give my all to it too, because a couple of years ago we had a student who was in line for a scholarship at a university in Hong Kong and she in fact wrote back to say that they had told her the committee that you know she needed, was there an award that she got at university that could in fact help her. You know the points, the score, and fortunately she had in fact gotten gotten an award and I was able to go back and send that and there she was full speed ahead with her scholarship.
Speaker 3:So you know, the awards are important and the students, like I say, they want the award but they don't always, you know, stay the course, but many of them do. Yes, in fact, we've had students who have never fallen off the Dean's List and, you know, wanted to do just the management aspect of things, and at the end they'll come and say, you know, miss, I think I'm going to do, I'm going to move into the cake, I'm going to do. Food service, you know so, it's a journey. Food service, you know so they, it's a journey and I find that they are, if it's okay for you to inspire them and and so on, and they're, they're good with being um, you know, with being um, you know, placed on the right track.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yeah, so you talk about this whole process being a journey, and you yourself mentioned that you've always known that you wanted to. You had a connection with baking me. As for me, I didn't know. I didn't know my connection with baking until I baked a cookie right and at my foundation I, I, I preach about the therapeutic benefits of baking. Tell me about how you feel when you're in the kitchen with your students or in your own personal space making a cake, right?
Speaker 3:But you know, dr Foster, you know we were talking a little while ago when you launched your book, when you launched your book here, and I said, omg, I mean cake therapy. And this is exactly what Mr Piper, mr Edwards and I have always said that we feel so relaxed and so blessed and just so free when we're able to bake. And in fact If I'm upset or stressed, I go home and put something in the oven. At the end of the day, my colleague, mike, who is here, he watches stuff. He's good. It is in fact a very, very relaxing thing. I feel all the more blessed because, of course, we're the only animals who use heat to prepare food. So I mean, it's just such a blessing. And you know I tell my students all the time you don't have to worry about getting a facial. You know steam thing. You know you come in front of this hot oven and there you are. You know you get a nice. You know, even from that point of view it's therapeutic and on all levels.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know, it really is yes, yeah, I am, I find that, I find that to be true and, um, you know, I I'm happy, like when I have guests on. I'm just so happy to hear that they to find this as a tool and it's not just a vocational space that they exist in. So kudos to you for sharing that with our listeners. Thanks, doc.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's something that grows on you. I mean, and yeah, and you come to realize it. I think even with my own daughter, I mean, when she left for college in New York, it was so stressful for her and then, once she moved and started to actually do her food thing, her baking stuff, it was a different person. So I think it's therapeutic.
Speaker 2:Making your own food and cooking or making your own cakes. It definitely does does change your life. Let's switch gears a little bit and talk about our podcast that you're now a part of, and I'm excited to have your students hear your voice on. So I've been touting for the last couple of weeks that my university has adapted our podcast as a resource, and I was super pleased when we got the email that you were adding it as the resource list for the benefit of our listeners who are located in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management in Jamaica. What was it about the conversations that we were having here at the Cake Therapy Podcast that inspired your decision to include this for your students and faculty?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I actually, you know, here we train our students for the world at large and I was really impressed by the wide cross-section of the audience that you had, the speakers that you had, and I thought that, you know, if our students could gain just more exposure to what goes on, you know, outside of these walls at the university, you know how much more empowering it would be for them.
Speaker 3:But really it was a wide transection of persons that you had and the depth, you know, it wasn't. I mean the stuff was, it would, there was depth to it, but yet you could follow it easily. You know, yeah, and I know that's the thing with them, they don't want, they don't want anything that bores them. They want stuff that that is relatable, you know, and and I found that your podcast offered that, you know, and it was not didactic in the sense that that would cause them to feel that they're still in the classroom. It really just had a wide offering and I thought that that would be a great thing for them. So actually, we're at that area now where we're doing a whole lot of cakes and so on. So I'm really expecting them to be tuning in and certainly I will have to be setting a little assignment on it.
Speaker 2:Give them an assignment.
Speaker 3:Yes, Give them an assignment so they tune in, yes, yeah, give them an assignment so they tune in. Yes, I really will.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know that not only baking and teaching is not just only a passion. You are a researcher as well. Talk about your work with the Scientific Research Council on your indigenous provisions and the importance of that in the culinary field.
Speaker 3:Right. So we actually have a collaborative thing here. Going at the university we do have a program that deals specifically with indigenous food and of course it comes over into the bacon, because when the students are doing their research project annually, they actually we have a MOU with the scientific research where we were actually using products that you know, farinaceous products, our fruit, our grapefruit, our pumpkin and so on. We've actually been doing quite a bit of testing on that. Yes, so every year we do have our students collaborating with the research agency, the SRC. With the research agency the SRC Specifically, we have been looking over the years with the cassava flour and birch fruit flour Specifically.
Speaker 3:Of course the gluten content of these is nowhere compared to the flour that we use. So our sponsors don't have to feel threatened in any way. But we are in fact doing a number of. We have a number of friends that we have and projects that we're unveiling and so on, and it's really very exciting because you know, so many people are becoming gluten intolerant. So we do offer alternatives, you know, on a case-by-case basis for sure, and you know it's always such a it's always such an eye-opener that when the students come in they don't all know that everything that we have, that is, foreign nations. A flower can in fact evolve from that, you know. So it's just a lovely journey. It really is a lovely journey, yes.
Speaker 2:I know I'm remembering on the president's induction or his inauguration day, when he talked about, like UTEC has always been STEM. He talked about, like you, tech has always been STEM and we continue to, to you know, to use it.
Speaker 2:We continue to be up until today. We're doing such great work. You are doing such great work. Tell me about your legacy. I know what my legacy, what I want my legacy to be on girls. I also know what I hope my legacy is be on girls. I also know what I hope my legacy to be for the University of Technology. But what do you want your legacy to be for the University of Technology?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I really and truly just want in fact, every year, when I get a new cohort, I say listen, guys, this is an area, the area to which you're being exposed is one that will empower you. I want you to understand that we're going to be putting your power literally in your hands Because, in fact, from you're able to create something you know you have, that you have that level of empowerment. You'll never again feel battered or threatened or, you know, pauperized. I want people to understand that there is a level of empowerment that the practical skills actually give you, and that you will be rewarded from your good work really, you know that. And and also that you need to be giving back, you need to be sharing, you can do everything with kindness and love. That that really is it, you know. Yeah, you will. I want people to feel empowered. I want them to understand that it's okay to feel happy about doing the things that you do best. You know it's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, you know what. You can do everything with happiness, and you know I'm taking that with me. You can do it with happiness and you can do it with love, and I'm so. I am grateful that you took the time to come and spend a couple minutes with us here on the podcast. Talk about your journey, talk about the work you're doing with the youth at the University of Technology, and you know to just give us an insight, an insight and why our podcast has become a part of the I would say, the fabric now of the university.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, absolutely, Dr Foster.
Speaker 2:Right you are.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, you're in.
Speaker 2:You're in, yeah, so continue to do the great work. I love the University of Technology, so anybody yeah, anyone who continues to help my institution grow I will forever support. So thank you so much. And to our listeners if you enjoyed today's podcast, you know check out the University of Technology and the great work that they're doing. I want to thank Mrs Marcia Fraser Cummings for joining us here today on the Cake Therapy Podcast your Slice of Joy and Healing. I hope you enjoyed this conversation. Thank you for joining us, mrs Cummings.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, dr Foster. We do appreciate your support. Thank you, yeah.
Speaker 2:Today's mindful moment. Cooking connects us to ourselves. Each meal is an invitation to care, to nourish and to be kind thank you for tuning in to the cake therapy podcast.
Speaker 1:Your support means the world to us. Let us know what you thought about today's episode in the comment section. Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcast and if you found the conversation helpful, please share it with a friend. Also, follow Sugar Spoon Desserts on all social media platforms. We invite you to support Cake Therapy and the work we do with our foundation by clicking on the Buy Me a Coffee link in the description or by visiting the cake therapy website and making a donation. All your support will go towards the cake therapy foundation and the work we are doing to help women and girls. Thanks again for tuning in and we'll catch you on the next episode.