The art of food runs in my family. Before I was even born, my grandmother was a cake decorator, making wedding cakes with style. Growing up, I remember my dad in the kitchen on Saturday mornings, creating new recipes and perfecting our old favorites: biscuits and gravy, toad-in-the-holes, waffles with berries and freshly whipped cream, and pumpkin pie pancakes. It seemed so natural for me to join the family tradition.

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       I've always been an artist and a fast learner, and when my grandma gifted me a cake decorating tip set as a young girl, I read the manual, decided I then knew everything about it, and saved my knowledge for future use.

 

      Finally, the day came to try my hand at cake decorating! I confidently got my supplies out to make my husband a stunning birthday cake. To my surprise and disappointment, cake decorating was a lot harder than I thought! My cake turned out so ugly, that my husband never ate any of it.* I didn't even eat any of it. It sat in the fridge, a sore reminder, for a week before I just threw it away. It was then that I decided I needed to do more than read a little manual to be able to create works of art in this new medium.

 

      Soon after I signed up for the Wilton cake decorating classes at the local craft store to learn how to make cakes for real. I loved it! I took all the courses I could, and ended up teaching the classes myself for five years! I went to training seminars, I read a bunch of cake decorating books and I did lots of experimenting. My artistic background served me well. I worked as the cake decorator at Bakery on the Common in Natick, Massachusetts for about five years and branched off on my own when my first child was born. I saw my skills improve enough that my clientele grew.

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      (*I found out later from my husband that he wasn't really a fan of eating cake after all and that's partly why that first cake sat in the fridge! Ha! Though, now he really likes my cakes. His favorite is my Strawberries and Cream flavor.)

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      Being a cake decorator means I'm also a designer, and an artist, and a sculptor, and a baker, and a florist, and a crafter all rolled into one. My knowledge of sewing and calligraphy have also been useful in creating cakes. I love that I can use so many skills since I have a lot of interests.