JULIETTE Jackson first remembers being introduced to the art of baking, and icing cakes, while a young girl in her mother's kitchen.

At the time, of course, she had no idea just how valuable those lessons - as unstructured as they were - would come to be. Despite a lack of formal training, for the past 26 years Mrs. Jackson has been praised for the traditional wedding and special occasion cakes she has prepared for residents across the island from her Southampton home.

According to the baker extraordinare, however, it's the art of the production that interests her most.

"I really enjoy it," she explained. "I wouldn't describe it as a job. For me, it's a hobby more than a profession and so I treat it as such and enjoy it to the fullest. I find (it similar) to art; like art, I have to come up with ideas. The only difference is that I apply them onto an iced cake.

"I first started watching my mom doing things in the kitchen. I remember when I was about seven or eight, taking an interest in the cakes she made - knowing how she separated the eggs, how she mixed the flour, how she prepared them.

"When I was 13 or 14, I started babysitting and would entertain the children, making cakes for them to eat. I did work at the Bermuda Bakery for about a year, making doughnut batter, putting it in the machines and packaging them for commercial businnesses, but I always wanted to be a hairdresser. I never thought about baking cakes other than for family members."

It was in honour of her son Anthony's first birthday, she said, that she initially experimented with decorating cakes and in 1976 baked her first for a wedding and opened her business, Triple J's Products.

"It grew from just baking cakes for the family into a profession. For my 21st birthday, I ordered a cake made by someone else and it was a complete mishap. It was one of the incidents that led me to start my own business. (On another occasion) my husband Wayne, had to take a cake into work on his birthday. Everyone really enjoyed it. And that's how it really got going. People started asking if I (made them for others). It presented a challenge to me and I decided to go for it."

Thus far, no cake - in design, decoration or flavour - has proved insurmountable. She excels at chocolate, carrot, marble, rainbow and even traditional Bermuda fruit and pound cakes - whatever is required to fit the occasion, having produced them in an unimaginable variety of shapes and structures.

"I've done shower cakes, wedding cakes, birthday cakes, anniversary cakes, you name it. And I've never had a hiccup. I have my own little techniques; I know, for example, exactly what texture the icing should be to prevent it from being affected by the weather.

"The largest I ever made was comprised of 14 different cakes with a water fountain in the middle. If they come with a picture, I go with what they want but most of the time, they see (examples of my past work) and leave the design up to me.

"I do it all on my own from a workplace with commercial equipment that's separate from my (regular) kitchen. Although it varies according to size, each takes about five hours to make and, in a really busy season, I'll do about four or five wedding cakes in a week."

ONE of the aspects she most enjoys, Mrs. Jackson added, is explaining the history of Bermuda's wedding rituals to brides and grooms-to-be. Doing so, she said, helped preserve our customs and heritage.

"According to Bermuda tradition," she explained, "both the bride and groom have wedding cakes. The groom has a plain pound cake covered with gold leafing, which represents wealth; the bride's cake consists solely of fruit, symbolising fertility, and is covered with silver leafing which represents purity.

"Atop the bride's cake it is customary to place a small vase containing a seedling of a cedar tree which is customarily planted on the family's property after the wedding. It is believed that as the cedar tree grows, the marriage will flourish with strength and happiness.

"Beside the bride's cake table, there is a potted cedar tree which is also to be planted after the wedding reception - either at the new home of the bride and groom or on the family's property.

"It's something that's been practised by many Bermudian families for well over 100 years; it's been passed down from generation to generation although we really don't know why it began."

An alternate tradition, she says, is to have the bride's cake covered in white icing with figures representing the newlyweds on top. In that style, the groom's cake is also covered in icing but has bells on top. Ivy is placed around the cake table, representing how the couple will cling together for the rest of their lives.

"I created a half-fruit/half-pound cake because many of today's generation don't like fruit. But it's always been a part of Bermuda's weddings and guests should be able to have a taste at the wedding. Many of the beautiful traditions of weddings have been lost. Younger generations don't know the beauty of our traditions."

Not only does she make the cake, but the baker will actually deliver it to the desired location and carefully arrange it on a table for presentation. She doesn't usually, however, sample much of her own material.

"I do eat cake, but only on special occasions. What I've always enjoyed is coconut cakes and roasted peanuts but I've always been involved in food.

"I met my husband working at the Blue Jay Luncheonette, a restaurant his father owned on Church Street, and I (helped) when my husband took over Sapphire Bay, a guest house his father owned on South Shore."

As to when she will retire from "her hobby" and pass her much-appreciated recipes and skills on to a willing learner, Mrs. Jackson was loath to consider the idea.

"I don't think the (public) would want to see an artist retiring," she explained. "It never ends. There's always something that inspires an artist to continue."

For more information on Triple J's Products, telephone 238-2813 or via e-mail at triplejsibl.bm