Patty Rutland of Ballston Spa, owner of the Patty-Cake Shoppe (which, she will have you know, is trademarked) and a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, has a list of accomplishments and interests that could make up a 500-page biography. Currently, it seems, cakes and animals in need of some TLC top that list of interests.
Rutland has baked cakes for Mario Cuomo and George Pataki and has nursed as many as 20 baby squirrels to health at one time.
Where to begin? It all happened because Rutland wanted to be an art teacher.
I went to work at Samaritan Hospital in Troy to get enough money to go to SUNY Albany, and they talked me into going into nursing, said Rutland.
She decided to enter a nursing program at Albany Medical Center.
`Then I met my husband as a nurse, and I worked as a nurse and got married and voila! And then my kids came along, and I started doing cakes for my kids, and I realized it was something I really enjoyed,` said Rutland, who is a self-taught baker.
For the first 10 years of her baking career, she taught herself `how to do everything.`
She then started taking courses from the experts, including Betty van Norstrand and Colette Peters.
`I never stop learning, and you can learn something from everyone. A beginner can teach me something so it’s really being open to sharing your ideas,` said Rutland.
Her shop, which is attached to her home in Ballston Spa, is filled with examples of her work, which range from wedding cakes to inauguration cakes to a cake she made of a gumball machine (that partially worked), which contained someone’s engagement ring ` long story.
`I don’t let anyone touch my cakes but me,` said Rutland. `I’m not a bakery. I do custom cakes so I’m really limited.`
Rutland said that in her `younger days` she used to bake seven cakes in a weekend and deliver them to various weddings and events, but has had to slow herself down to three to four cakes per weekend in recent years since her husband (the only person who was allowed to help out) died.
`I don’t want to be rushing through someone’s cake because my work is very precise,` said Rutland.
Rutland is a strong believer in making sure she gets along with her clients ` especially brides-to-be.
`First you have to be happy with the person you’re working with, and they have to like your work,` said Rutland.
Rutland has photo album upon photo album with pictures of her work ` she’s been at it since 1978. She shows brides-to-be these albums and tells them, `These are my cakes. You can have them any way you want them. You can change them all around, but this is what my work is,` said Rutland.
She said she is also willing to work with photos from magazines if that’s what the bride-to-be wants.
Rutland gives brides-to-be samples of cakes to bring home and taste at their leisure.
`If it’s awful, what are they going to say? They’re sitting in front of you,` said Rutland, who added that she never worries about her cakes tasting awful because she’s `very particular.`
However, just in case, she does this so that clients don’t feel obliged to say, `Oh, this is really good, when they don’t like it.`
While Rutland has made cakes for the likes of former Govs. Mario Cuomo and George Pataki, she said that she’s just as happy `making cakes for Joe Schmo.`
As if Rutland wasn’t busy enough with her cake decorating, she also rehabilitates squirrels. Don’t worry ` it’s legal and they never, ever go near the kitchen where she bakes her cakes. Ever.She is a New York State licensed wildlife rehabilitator.
It all started when she went for a massage and had a conversation with her masseuse, who happened to be a wildlife rehabilitator and encouraged Rutland, because of her interests, to become one as well. It is done on a strictly volunteer basis.
`Patty does all of this out of her own pocket,` said Nancy Mognoni, another wildlife rehabilitator, as she held a baby squirrel in a patch of blanket in Rutland’s home.
`Without us there’s no one to take them,` said Rutland of injured wildlife. `We get so inundated. I had 20 baby squirrels to feed every four hours [at one time].`
Most people have never touched a squirrel, and Mognoni said that until people realize how cute these animals are, some even go out of the way to hit them with their cars.
`If you ever raised a squirrel, you wouldn’t think of hurting an animal,` said Rutland.
Rutland is a member of North Country Wildcare. For more information, the organization’s Web site is located at http://www.northcountrywildcare.org.
Rutland has described herself as a lifelong learner.
`The older I get the more I want to learn, and I wish I had this drive when I was 16 instead of 60,` said Rutland.She decided to enter a nursing program at Albany Medical Center.
`Then I met my husband as a nurse, and I worked as a nurse and got married and voila! And then my kids came along, and I started doing cakes for my kids, and I realized it was something I really enjoyed,` said Rutland, who is a self-taught baker.
For the first 10 years of her baking career, she taught herself `how to do everything.`
She then started taking courses from the experts, including Betty van Norstrand and Colette Peters.
`I never stop learning, and you can learn something from everyone. A beginner can teach me something so it’s really being open to sharing your ideas,` said Rutland.
Her shop, which is attached to her home in Ballston Spa, is filled with examples of her work, which range from wedding cakes to inauguration cakes to a cake she made of a gumball machine (that partially worked), which contained someone’s engagement ring ` long story.
`I don’t let anyone touch my cakes but me,` said Rutland. `I’m not a bakery. I do custom cakes so I’m really limited.`
Rutland said that in her `younger days` she used to bake seven cakes in a weekend and deliver them to various weddings and events, but has had to slow herself down to three to four cakes per weekend in recent years since her husband (the only person who was allowed to help out) died.
`I don’t want to be rushing through someone’s cake because my work is very precise,` said Rutland.
Rutland is a strong believer in making sure she gets along with her clients ` especially brides-to-be.
`First you have to be happy with the person you’re working with, and they have to like your work,` said Rutland.
Rutland has photo album upon photo album with pictures of her work ` she’s been at it since 1978. She shows brides-to-be these albums and tells them, `These are my cakes. You can have them any way you want them. You can change them all around, but this is what my work is,` said Rutland.
She said she is also willing to work with photos from magazines if that’s what the bride-to-be wants.
Rutland gives brides-to-be samples of cakes to bring home and taste at their leisure.
`If it’s awful, what are they going to say? They’re sitting in front of you,` said Rutland, who added that she never worries about her cakes tasting awful because she’s `very particular.`
However, just in case, she does this so that clients don’t feel obliged to say, `Oh, this is really good,` when they don’t like it.
While Rutland has made cakes for the likes of former Govs. Mario Cuomo and George Pataki, she said that she’s just as happy `making cakes for Joe Schmo.`
As if Rutland wasn’t busy enough with her cake decorating, she also rehabilitates squirrels. Don’t worry ` it’s legal and they never, ever go near the kitchen where she bakes her cakes. Ever.She is a New York State licensed wildlife rehabilitator.
It all started when she went for a massage and had a conversation with her masseuse, who happened to be a wildlife rehabilitator and encouraged Rutland, because of her interests, to become one as well. It is done on a strictly volunteer basis.
`Patty does all of this out of her own pocket,` said Nancy Mognoni, another wildlife rehabilitator, as she held a baby squirrel in a patch of blanket in Rutland’s home.
`Without us there’s no one to take them,` said Rutland of injured wildlife. `We get so inundated. I had 20 baby squirrels to feed every four hours [at one time].`
Most people have never touched a squirrel, and Mognoni said that until people realize how cute these animals are, some even go out of the way to hit them with their cars.
`If you ever raised a squirrel, you wouldn’t think of hurting an animal,` said Rutland.
Rutland is a member of North Country Wildcare. For more information, the organization’s Web site is located at http://www.northcountrywildcare.org.
Rutland has described herself as a lifelong learner.
`The older I get the more I want to learn, and I wish I had this drive when I was 16 instead of 60,` said Rutland.“