She’s building a baking empire in bubblegum pink

“Are you ready to face the wall?” Four contestants stand nervously at their baking stations as host Noah Cappe gets ready for the reveal. They cheer, “Yes!”

“This is your Wall of Bakers.”

The music crescendos. The lights flip on 12 of Canada’s biggest baking icons ready to taste what the contestants whip up and pick a winner. At the top of the panel of judges: twins Jenna Hutchinson and Ashley Kosowan, co-owners of Jenna Rae Cakes.

There’s just one thing.

"My instinct is to cower from the spotlight," says Ashley.

She's been putting herself out there for 12 years, since she joined Jenna in their startup bakery. And it still doesn't come naturally to someone who describes herself as an introvert.

But the brand she built alongside her sister’s vibrant cakes — bold and loud, in a hot bubblegum pink sort of way — has a habit of grabbing the spotlight anyway. She’s just catching up.

Made From Scratch

Before the bubblegum pink, Jenna Rae Cakes was a culinary experiment started in the apartment kitchen the twin sisters shared in 2010.

Jenna was figuring out where life would lead after a successful run playing university-level hockey. And Ashley, a creative director at a wedding magazine, saw the potential of her sister’s home-baked sweets. “I knew the market, and I knew that there was a gaping hole that she could fill in the creative wedding cake space,” she says.

So when Jenna moved the operation out of their home and into a storefront, Ashley came, too — though in the background.

Where Jenna excelled with cake batter and fondant, Ashley felt more at home with spreadsheets and fonts. Where Jenna dreamed and tinkered, Ashley planned and analyzed.

They balanced each other, and for a while, that was enough. “I always say, I’m glad I wasn't fully involved at this point,” Ashley says. “I was there every step of the way, helping her with her menu, her website, her logos, her packaging, being at the storefront, but I wasn't involved in the big decisions.”

“I love my work. I can be loud and fun and colorful. That's like my alter ego.

But brands that loud don't stay small for long.

As Jenna Rae Cakes grew into four locations, multiple product lines, and a growing shelf of cookbooks, it demanded more and more of Ashley.

Some of it came naturally. “One of my favorite moments is the day we got our first email from our book editor.” Ashley always wanted to design a cookbook. “I've never been more excited to receive an mail in my life.” She took the lead conceptualizing and managing the creative product top to bottom.

And some were the kind that an introvert sleeplessly dreads at 2 a.m. “You have to make those hard decisions. You have to protect your team, your work ethic, your work environment, and the culture. You have to have those hard conversations.”

And it wasn’t the big decisions that kept her up — not totally. The smaller ones that pop up en masse every single day felt just as hard, if not harder. Hiring decisions. Vendor contacts. Who’s going to pick up the compost. “The smallest decisions, the biggest ones, they all feel equal in weight,” she says.

For Ashley, rising to the challenge meant growing along with the business. “I want to get a bit more assertive and be able to have those tough conversations in a positive way,” she says. “It's just listening to that voice inside your head: you should say something now, instead of shying away from it.”

As someone who by nature keeps her head down, learning to make those calls out loud is its own kind of bold.

Too Many Cooks

One thing Ashley knows about the spotlight: It’s a double-edged sword.
The louder the brand, the louder the critics.

With no formal training in baking and with no previous experience working in the food and beverage industry, peers were quick to take aim with critical remarks.

“A lot of chefs were really upset at the fact that we weren't doing classic macaron flavors like raspberry vanilla or lemon pistachio. We were doing Lucky Charms, cotton candy, and fuzzy peach,” she says.

It wasn’t just other bakers turning up the heat. Their customers did, too. Take their salted caramel macaron – one of Ashley’s favorites. One person would share that it’s the best thing they’ve ever tasted. Another would call to complain that it’s too salty. (Could they tone it down?)

Then there’s the pull of social media. “There are so many trends. You're inundated with content and beautiful things and all the ideas in the world, every single day.”

"The experiences and the opportunities we've received because we put ourselves out there have been incredible."

They could have given in. Toned down the flavors, followed the trends, done the raspberry vanilla. But that would have made them like everyone else.

Instead, they leaned into what made them stand out. “There was a lot of benefit to us not working in professional kitchens or bakeries before, because then that would have molded what a bakery could be. We just had no idea. We built a bakery that we wanted to see.”

The art of handling criticism is still a lesson-in-progress, Ashley says. As a people pleaser by nature, there’s no quick fix—just confidence gained over time. But she found her voice here, too. “You really have to be solid in your convictions, your quality, and what you’re building, because if you get swayed by too many opinions, you just won't create something really special and unique,” she says.

That cotton candy macaron is still on the menu.

Ready To Serve

After judging on the Wall of Baker[SS1.1]s, Ashley isn’t cowering from that spotlight anymore.

“I really love pushing myself," she says. "The experiences and the
opportunities we've received because we put ourselves out there have
been incredible."

From behind-the-scenes decisions no one else sees to the full glare of public scrutiny, none of it came naturally to someone who'd rather keep her head down. Yet she’s found herself in it.

“I love my work. I can be loud and fun and colorful. That's like my alter ego,” she says.

Maybe she’s a little hot bubblegum pink after all.