Julia M Usher
Julia M. Usher is a celebrated pastry chef, writer, and stylist whose work has appeared in Vera Wang on Weddings, Bon Appétit, Fine Cooking, Better Homes and Gardens, Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion, Gastronomica, and nearly every national bridal magazine.
Julia is Contributing Editor at Dessert Professional, a 2008 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards finalist, and Immediate Past President of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She has created two books, 13 ebooks, an app, and a DVD series on the subject of cookie
Karen Portaleo
Karen Portaleo is a cake and chocolate artist and teacher, currently living in Atlanta. She grew up in bakeries, where her grandfather worked as a pastry chef. She holds a BFA in Fine Art, and before working with cake, she had a prop and set company, and worked in clay as well.
She has appeared on many Food Network Challenges and specials, including season one of Halloween Wars. After working as a decorator in a bakery for 7 years, Karen left to embark on an International teaching career, sharing her passion for cake and chocolate wherever she goes.
Kaysie Lackey
Celebrity Pastry Chef Kaysie Lackey is a food artist and cake decorating instructor based in Seattle, Washington. As owner of The People’s Cake, her unique style and vivacious personality have won her international fame and recognition. Utilizing her background in both fine arts and culinary arts, she combines art and fashion to create original and over-the-top designs for clients and competitions.
More recently, The People's Cake was chosen as one of BRIDES magazine's top 100 Cake Decorators in the United States in 2013 and in 2014, Kaysie was named as one of Martha Stewart’s top 63 pastry professionals.
Originally from Brentwood, Tennessee, she is known around the globe for her gravity-defying cakes and repeatedly demonstrates why she is a world leader in the art of cake sculpture. Kaysie teaches at cake decorating schools in the United Kingdom, United States, Mexico, Canada, Australia and throughout Europe.
Mike MaCarey
Mike McCarey’s career in cake started right out of high school with a two-year term at a cooking school in Denver, Colorado. From there he worked as a pastry chef at various hotels, caterers, restaurants, and bakeries in Colorado, New York, and Washington State. It was in Washington where Mike decided to release his inner sculptor and focus on cake exclusively and he started his company “Mike’s Amazing Cakes” in 1993.
His cake “art” is guided by several principals: the concept being presented should be as accurate and true to life or as animated as possible and should have as unique a perspective as can be conjured up. Since 2007, Mike has been traveling across the country and internationally, sharing his experience, teaching classes, and judging various cake competitions. He has also released his own instructional video, as well as several classes with Craftsy.com.
Ruth Rickey
Ruth Rickey is a former attorney and administrative law judge. She fell in love with cakes and became manager of an upscale grocery store in Oklahoma City. After 5 years, she was named top Bakery Manager for IGA's 3200 stores in 31 countries and knew that it was time to open her own shop.
Ruth opened Ruth's Sweete Justice Bakery in 2000 and ran it until December of 2011. The bakery was widely respected as one of the top sweets providers in Oklahoma. Ruth closed the shop in order to focus on teaching - her true passion. Since January, 2012, Ruth has been teaching all over the US and Canada and, in 2013, will be all over the world.
Ruth is an ICES Certified Master Sugar Artist. Ruth has been seen on WE TV's Wedding Cake Wars (her team won), twice on TLC's Ultimate Cake Off (assistant to Pat Jacoby on two wins) and on three specials on The Food Network about The Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show.
Sharon Wee
Sharon Wee is a cake artist residing in Sydney, Australia. To date, Sharon's creations have been on TV, in magazines, on the radio, and have won multiple online and show awards.
Sharon's style has been described as clean, fun, cute and whimsical. She spent many years focusing on wedding cakes and it was only in the last couple of years that she decided to start teaching. Through teaching she discovered she loved getting to know students from all different backgrounds and watching them learn and achieve projects they never thought they could. The experiences are always fun and rewarding. Today, she focuses mainly on teaching locally, nationally, and internationally.
Verusca Walker
Verusca Walker is a Brazilian born Cake Artist who has been living in Australia for the past 15 years. With a background in fine art, Verusca loves to mix mediums to create cakes that defy gravity. She is well known for her colourful and sparkly cakes and for her 3D cakes that appear very life-like. Her passion for cake art and her fun personality makes her classes a must have experience. Verusca travels to the best Cake decorating Schools all over the world teaching the art of cake decorating and creative structures.
Verusca is also the new Artist of Excellence for Satin Ice and just won the cake Challenge for LifeStyle Food Channel 2014
Zoe Clark
Zoe Clark is one of London’s leading cake designers, and her awarding winning designs regularly feature in bridal and sugarcraft publications around the globe. Zoë has produced seven books showcasing her unique style and her tutorials can be found online via Craftsy.
Zoe opened The Cake Parlour in London in November 2010, where as well as offering a bespoke cake and confectionery design service for every occasion she also runs cake-decorating classes for aspiring cake decorators from all over the country and beyond.