Here at The Montclair Girl, we can’t resist a unique food item or a beautifully decorated dessert. We first came across Truffalla cakes on Instagram, where their unique cakes are unlike anything we’ve seen before. Located at 5 Elliott Place in West Orange, Truffalla’s owner Alla Jackelli is bringing her creative confections to Essex County. With cascades of delicate sugar flowers, elements of paper, and textured icing, every cake is a piece of art. Read on to learn more about this elegant cake company.
About Alla + Truffalla Cakes
Born in the Republic of Georgia, Alla Jackelli made her way to France to learn about food. She had the honor of working with mentor, Chef Elizabeth Bourgeois, in her restaurant “Le Mas Tourteron” in Provence, France. There, she acquired personal knowledge of taste, flavor, cuisine, and the balance between sweet and savory. It was the perfect place to immerse herself in culinary delights in order to follow her dreams to the United States.
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Soon, Alla moved to New York City to pursue a career as a pastry chef, but after five years in the boroughs, she dreamed of living in a small town. West Orange turned out to be the perfect spot and, as she says, “a beautiful place to live.”
As a pastry chef, Alla had made many cakes before, but during the Covid lockdown two years ago, she decided to hone in on one confection. “I love the process of creating them,” she says, “it’s like all your fantasies and dreams are coming true.” As a certified home baker, she has a small studio where she labors over sugar flowers, molds paper details, and bakes up her ideas. “I feel like a magician creating something special for every single cake. I never stop making floral arrangements,” she says, adding, “I love every cake I’ve ever made.”
Alla doesn’t make copies of other cakes — instead, she creates her own variation on the requested theme or idea. She is inspired by nature, art, and architecture, which helps inform structure and texture. Sometimes the cakes resemble the delicate molding of a piece of pottery or the roughened surface of a marble slab. They are not your common illusion cakes where the cake is made into a car or shoe. To this, Alla says, “it’s not my thing.”
She spends her off-time refining her craft, taking masterclasses with renowned cake artists, gleaning ideas from pâtissier friends, and developing her spins on recipes she finds. Alla’s favorite flavor is passion fruit mousse, which she learned and modified from another baker. She also adores playing with chocolate as a filling but finds structure and sculpted shapes exciting.
“It’s like any other job, which you must improve and develop nonstop every day. You have to put your heart into it. Otherwise, it will be just a cake, which you can buy in any supermarket.”
The Cake-Making Process
“Tell me your story and I’ll make your dream cake.”
Alla’s process is a truly creative endeavor. For her, it is not just a cake. It is an expression. She begins with the customer’s idea but loves when they grant her creative license to explore. It’s easy to make something a client has seen somewhere, but once the concept moves through Alla’s brain, it will come out a version all her own. Sometimes she sketches, but most of the time, she keeps the design in her head, finessing the final plans until the end. She likes to keep the idea malleable “because completely different ideas for its design may appear.”
Alla’s art is literally a piece of cake.
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How to Order
Orders can be placed online at her website, and Alla will write up a custom contract to ensure a mutually agreed-upon goal, budget, and delivery time for your cake. Next, she will discuss details, colors, themes, and inspiration to bake a unique cake just for you. Then the magic begins as the thoughts percolate inside Alla’s head and come out as the cake of your dreams Follow along here on Instagram to see more of Truffalla.
We’re looking forward to ordering a cake for our next big event, how about you?
