What started as a fun activity to stay entertained and have a little at-home fun during the pandemic has turned into a viral sensation for one mother-daughter baking duo.
Joey Lo, a Toronto-based flight attendant with a side hustle as a cake artist, first got her start baking for her oldest daughter who has a peanut allergy. When she was laid off amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she thought, "it's been four years but maybe I can make something out of my baking again."
Lo told "Good Morning America" when she turned to her confections for the flexible work, a creative outlet and activity for her youngest, Ellis Tang, she realized, "wow, this works out perfectly."
"She was home with me this whole time for like 24-7 because everything was closed room pandemic and she saw what I was doing and she's like, 'Mommy I want to try too.' So I'd give her my leftover fondant and some cake tools," Lo explained.
"She would sit there for like two hours and she would enjoy it and it kept her busy," Lo said. "I noticed her fine motor skills are really good and she's very artistic so I started teaching her the very basics of cake decorating."
Ellis and her mom have recorded dozens of videos crafting an array of cake designs; from a birthday cake made to look like a handheld vacuum for her dad who's "addicted to cleaning" to a hit Disney movie-inspired bake, the pair have amazed followers on social media.
"People really enjoyed it so then we started making more cakes and I recorded more and then I guess it just snowballed from there," Lo said. "I show some behind the scenes where I'm teaching because I make one next to her -- and she copied me every step -- she picks things up really fast."
As for Ellis, when asked which cake design has been her favorite to date, she told "GMA" she liked one inspired by a character from the new Disney and Pixar film "Turning Red." "Her name is Mei and when she gets mad she puffs right into a big scary monster and red panda," she said.
Ellis said her favorite flavors to eat are "chocolate, vanilla and strawberry." And as for the process, she said, "I like to put the sprinkles on the cake and the funnest part is to eat the sprinkles."
"I'd love to make an ant, a spider and a grasshopper cake," Ellis said for her next undertaking.
Her mom said that baking cakes together has become so much more than a recipe or activity.
"Making cakes and making fun videos together, it was like super therapeutic for us," she said. "Me and Ellis in the morning will make a figurine and then after lunch we'll assemble the cake together and that's like one whole day and we just really enjoyed it."
Even though many aspects of their daily lives have returned to normal in Canada, Lo said "we still do it because it's just been such a big part of our routine now."
