Dates and times below are CDT (GMT-5).
Baking rewards precision, but some of the most memorable desserts begin with something that didn’t go according to plan.
In this keynote, Genevieve Ko shares what years of developing, testing, editing, and troubleshooting recipes have taught her about the creative power of mistakes. She’ll explore how baking disasters can become useful information, revealing what a recipe needs, what a baker understands, and where something new might be hiding.
Rather than treating mistakes as failures, Genevieve will show how understanding the fundamentals gives bakers the confidence to ask better questions, make smart adjustments, and transform unexpected results into stronger techniques and more original ideas.
If you’ve ever pulled something from the oven and thought, “Well, now what?” this keynote will give you a new way to look at the space between disaster and discovery.
Genevieve Ko is a senior editor and columnist for the Food section of The New York Times, where she writes stories, develops recipes, and oversees the content for NYT Cooking, one of the most influential cooking and baking platforms in the country.
Before joining The Times, Genevieve was the cooking editor at the Los Angeles Times. She has also worked as an editor at Real Simple, Martha Stewart and Gourmet, and her writing and recipes have appeared in major food publications throughout her career. She is the author of Better Baking and has contributed to more than 20 cookbooks, including projects with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Carla Hall and Sarabeth Levine.
Genevieve’s career spans food media, cookbook writing, recipe developing, restaurant and business consulting, and professional kitchens, giving her a rare perspective on how recipes are created, refined, rescued, and made reliable for home bakers.
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Why choose between cake and cheesecake when you can stack them into one unforgettable dessert? In this hands-on class, Lindsay Conchar of Life, Love and Sugar will show you how to make an Oreo Cheesecake Cake: vanilla oreo cake layers, a creamy Oreo cheesecake layer, frosting, piping, and plenty of cookie-filled drama.
You’ll learn how to bake tender cake layers, make a smooth, crack-free cheesecake, prepare each component for stacking, and assemble a clean, stable cheesecake cake. Lindsay will also share frosting tips, piping guidance, and practical tricks for making this impressive dessert feel manageable at home.
This class is perfect for bakers who want to create a true showstopper with the best parts of cake and cheesecake in every slice.
Lindsay Conchar is the recipe developer and photographer behind Life, Love and Sugar, a baking blog that reaches millions of readers each year. She is a self-taught baker with more than 15 years of experience developing, testing, and sharing approachable dessert recipes.
Lindsay is known for detailed recipes, helpful tips, and reliable baking guidance, especially for cakes, cupcakes, and cheesecakes. She is the author of Simply Beautiful Homemade Cakes, released in 2016, and her work has been featured in Cake Central Magazine, Delish.com, People.com, and more.
Learn how to make smooth, creamy Italian gelato at home with recipe developer and food educator Jessica Mode. In this class, Jessica will teach fior di latte gelato, one of the most classic Italian flavors. Made without added flavorings, fior di latte highlights the flavor of the milk itself, which makes it the ultimate test of a gelato maker’s technique. There is nothing to hide behind, so balance, texture, and process matter.
Jessica will walk you through how to create a gelato base that is rich, scoopable, and never icy or grainy. You’ll learn what makes Italian gelato different from traditional ice cream, how each ingredient affects texture and scoopability, and how to properly cook, chill, mature, and churn a gelato base at home.
She’ll also teach the principles behind gelato formulas so you can move beyond one recipe and start creating your own flavors. You’ll learn how to think about fat, sugar, milk solids, stabilizers, serving temperature, and ingredient swaps so you can adapt the base for variations like chocolate, nut, fruit, coffee, or stracciatella.
Because gelato base needs time to mature overnight, participants will be able to cook the base alongside Jessica during class, while churning will be demonstrated with a prepared base.
This class is perfect for bakers and dessert lovers who want to understand the science behind authentic Italian gelato and make creamy, scoopable frozen desserts with confidence.
Jessica Mode is the recipe developer and food educator behind Homebody Eats, where she teaches approachable, technique-focused recipes and classes. Her work is centered on helping home cooks understand the “why” behind the process so they can build real confidence in the kitchen.
Jessica’s passion for food led her to culinary school in Southern Italy, where she spent three months studying regional Italian cuisine, including artisan gelato production. During her training, she learned the science behind balancing gelato formulas, ingredient functionality, pasteurization, flavor development, and traditional Italian production methods. Since returning from Italy, she has continued developing and testing authentic gelato recipes while teaching others how to recreate Italian gelato at home.
In this hands-on class, Jackie will walk you through her go-to scone method and show you how to get the classic crumbly texture people love without ending up with dry, dense scones.
During class, Jackie will teach three scones: a cinnamon-filled pumpkin scone, a fresh apple scone, and a classic British scone.
Through these recipes, you’ll learn how to mix and handle scone dough, shape and cut scones, add a filling, and work with ingredients like pumpkin and fresh fruit that can affect moisture, texture, and structure.You’ll also discover what makes a traditional British scone different from the American-style variations, giving you a better sense of how small changes in ingredients and technique can affect the final result.
Along the way, Jackie will share tips for adapting one reliable scone base into different flavors and styles so you can use the same method for brunches, bakery boxes, holiday menus, gifts, or everyday baking.
This class is perfect for bakers who want a dependable scone recipe, better texture, and the confidence to make seasonal and traditional variations without guessing.
Jackie Thesing is the self-taught baker, recipe developer, and dessert blogger behind Sweet Girl Treats, where she shares creative, approachable desserts for everyday bakers. She started Sweet Girl Treats while home with her three young children as a way to share the recipes she was creating in her own kitchen.
Known for rich, simple desserts and an encouraging teaching style, Jackie helps home bakers feel confident trying recipes that look special without feeling overwhelming. Her baking philosophy is simple: if she can do it, so can you.
Jackie regularly shares live baking demos on Minnesota television, including Fox 9 Good Day, Twin Cities Live, and Taste Buds with Stephanie. She also demonstrates recipes at the Minnesota State Fair in the Cambria Kitchen, bringing her practical, approachable style to live audiences.
Her favorite recipes to teach include scones, because they are versatile, customizable, and perfect for everything from everyday baking to seasonal menus and special occasions.
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The Swiss have had this figured out since 1954. In this fast 15-minute demo, you’ll see how the bamix Baking system makes quick work of everyday baking prep, including whipping cream, beating eggs, and blending batters smooth.
Watch how its blades and attachments can help you move faster through the small tasks that usually require extra tools, extra time, and extra cleanup.
Show up live and you’ll be entered to win the full bamix Baking set, retail value $399.
Get to know Plugrà, the official butter sponsor of The Bake Fest, and learn what sets European-style butter apart. Discover how Plugrà’s higher butterfat content can affect flavor, texture, and performance in your baking, plus ways to make the most of it in everything from pastries and cookies to cakes and more.
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Learn how to make sweet Texas-Czech kolaches from scratch. These soft, enriched pastries are filled with fruit, cream cheese, poppy seed, or other sweet fillings, then finished with posipka, a traditional streusel topping.
In this class, Heather will share a brief history of Texas-Czech kolaches and walk you through the full process, including how to make the dough, prepare a variety of fillings, shape the kolaches, add posipka, and finish them with glaze. You’ll also learn practical tips for working with enriched dough so your kolaches bake up soft, tender, and full of flavor.
This class is perfect for bakers who love regional baking traditions, enriched breads, and sweet pastries with a story.
Heather Janak is the self-taught dessert recipe developer behind @youthsweets, where she shares elevated bakes, nostalgic desserts, and thoughtfully tested recipes with more than 235,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram.
A Texas baker who married into a large Texas-Czech family, Heather learned the tradition of making sweet kolaches from the people who grew up with them at the center of family gatherings, holidays, and community tables. Her version of kolache baking blends careful recipe development with a deep appreciation for the Texas-Czech traditions that made these soft, filled pastries beloved across the state.
In her teaching, Heather focuses on making beautiful, bakery-worthy desserts feel approachable, helping home bakers understand the techniques behind dough, fillings, shaping, and finishing touches.
In this hands-on class, Courtney will show you how to create bakery-style s’mores sandwich cookies
You’ll learn how to bake cookies with consistent shape, texture, and appearance, make ganache with the right consistency for filling, and whip up a smooth, pipeable toasted marshmallow buttercream. Courtney will also share tips for troubleshooting cookies, buttercream, and sandwich cookie assembly so each layer looks clean and tastes balanced.
Then, you’ll assemble the cookies with layered ganache and buttercream fillings, clean edges, and a polished finish that makes them look ready for a bakery case while capturing all the best parts of s’mores in one nostalgic dessert.
This class is perfect for bakers who want to make impressive sandwich cookies, improve their cookie consistency, and learn fillings they can use in future desserts.
Courtney Carey is the creator, recipe developer, and baker behind Cake Me Home Tonight, a dessert recipe blog dedicated to easy, delicious, and nostalgic treats. Based in Buffalo, New York, Courtney has been inspiring home bakers since launching her platform in 2020 with original, thoroughly tested recipes that are approachable, reliable, and fun to make.
A self-proclaimed ’80s enthusiast, Courtney specializes in cupcakes, cookies, cakes, and buttercream frosting, combining classic flavors with playful, nostalgic twists. In 2024, she published her debut cookbook, Girls Just Wanna Bake Cupcakes, an all-cupcake cookbook inspired by her love of baking and ’80s pop culture.
Courtney is passionate about helping home bakers build confidence in the kitchen with desserts that feel approachable, creative, and fun.
In this hands-on class, Amy will walk you through her tried-and-true method for making flaky, tender pie dough from scratch while showing you what the dough should look and feel like at every stage.
You’ll also learn how to build a fruit filling that bakes up juicy, flavorful, and sliceable instead of runny or gummy. Amy will cover how to choose the right thickening agent, when to cook a filling first, whether a filling should be hot or chilled before assembling, and how to decide when a pie crust needs to be blind baked.
Using her cranberry cherry lattice pie as the featured project, Amy will teach you how to roll and transfer dough, fill the pie, create a lattice top, finish the edges, and bake until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling.
This class is perfect for bakers who want to stop guessing their way through pie and understand how crust, filling, thickener, and bake time all work together.
Amy Nash is the recipe developer behind House of Nash Eats, a popular food blog where she helps millions of home bakers and home cooks build confidence with family-favorite recipes, updated comfort food classics, and from-scratch desserts.
Amy’s love of travel has taken her to all 50 states and inspired many of the regional recipes she shares with her audience. Pie is her favorite dessert to make, eat, and teach. Each November, she shares a new pie every day on Instagram leading up to Thanksgiving, and she has also created a series featuring the most iconic dessert from every state, including many beloved state pies.
Known for real, reliable, and approachable recipes, Amy believes anyone who says they does not like pie probably has not had a good one yet.
Refuel, relax, or pop into the networking rooms to mingle
We’re all together here – back-to-back sessions you won’t mant to miss
You can’t sit in three classes at the same time – but you can catch all three instructors together right after. This live panel is your chance to ask anything on baking or decorating (not just about their classes), connect with the experts whose sessions you missed, and get unfiltered answers straight from the source.
Learn how Naturally FC brings childhood favorites to life in a whole new way. Discover the versatility of Arnel’s All Purpose Organic Gluten-Free Flour and Make A Cake Flour – ideal for cookies, cakes, and more. You’ll find out how easy it is to bake gluten-free treats that don’t compromise on flavor or texture, and walk away with recipes and inspiration to try at home.
Maïzly is the world’s first plant-based milk alternative made from non-GMO corn. Recipe developer Michelle Daniels has worked with Maïzly across a wide range of recipes. In this demo, she’ll showcase a fall-inspired bake, walk you through her process, and share practical tips for using Maïzly in the kitchen, along with what she enjoys most about baking with it.
Maïzly’s CEO will also join to share the story behind this innovative cornmilk. Free from seed oils and common allergens and versatile enough to sip, froth, cook, and bake with, Maïzly may be the most unexpected new addition to your pantry. Join to learn everything that this new product can do for your baking.
In this class, Kristin will show you how to make artisan-style baguettes, including how to build flavor, create dough strength, shape baguettes, and bake them with a thin, crackly crust.
You’ll learn how a simple starter mixture, called a preferment, can improve the flavor, texture, and overall quality of your bread. Kristin will explain what it does, why it matters, and how to use it without making the process feel complicated.
She’ll also show you how to handle a wetter dough, shape baguettes with enough tension for beautiful oven spring, and create steam in a home oven for that classic crisp crust. Along the way, she’ll break down the “why” behind each step so you can troubleshoot your bread and keep improving every time you bake.
Because baguette dough needs time to ferment, participants will be able to mix dough alongside Kristin during class, while she uses dough prepared at multiple stages to demonstrate shaping, proofing, scoring, steaming, and baking live.
This class is perfect for bakers who want to feel more confident with yeast doughs, understand the science behind great bread, and make better baguettes in a home kitchen.
Kristin “Baker Bettie” Hoffman is a trained chef, bestselling cookbook author, and baking educator specializing in baking fundamentals, yeast breads, sourdough, and approachable baking science. She is the author of Baker Bettie’s Better Baking Book, an Amazon #1 bestseller and one of Food Network’s Top 10 Baking Books of 2021.
Through her educational content, Kristin has built a community of more than 1.1 million followers and founded The Better Baking School, an online learning platform that has served over 30,000 students worldwide. In 2022, she opened Bettie’s Chicago, a recreational cooking and baking school in downtown Chicago, where she teaches hands-on classes with a special focus on bread and sourdough.
Known for breaking down the “why” behind baking in an approachable way, Kristin helps bakers build confidence through a deeper understanding of technique and baking science.
Learn how to turn boxed cake mix into creative, bakery-worthy desserts with Janelle Nichole. In this beginner-friendly class, Janelle will show you how to use simple mixes as a starting point for cakes that feel homemade, flavorful, and completely transformed.
You’ll learn how to improve texture, moisture, and flavor with smart ingredient swaps, liquid adjustments, fat swaps, extracts, fillings, and mix-ins. Janelle will also explain how mixing methods affect the final cake so you can avoid common problems like dry texture, dense crumbs, or cakes that taste too “boxed.”
During class, Janelle will demonstrate two creative cake mix transformations: an Almond Croissant Gooey Butter Cake and a Berry Chantilly Split Bundt Cake (a Bundt cake sliced and filled with berries and Chantilly cream). Through these recipes, you’ll see how boxed cake mix can become the base for desserts with layered flavors, beautiful presentation, and a more polished, bakery-style finish.
This class is perfect for beginners, busy bakers, and anyone who wants to make boxed cake mix taste more homemade, more creative, and more impressive.
Janelle Nichole is a self-taught baker, recipe creator, Allrecipes Allstar, and the voice behind a baking community of more than 198,000 followers on Instagram. Her approachable recipes and practical baking tips have also been featured by Good Morning America, Good Housekeeping, and Fox 29 Philly.
Known for simple, reliable desserts that help home bakers feel confident in the kitchen, Janelle shares recipes that are fun, creative, and easy to follow. Her teaching style focuses on clear instructions, helpful shortcuts, and the small details that make baking feel less intimidating.
In her work, Janelle combines warmth, encouragement, and real-world baking know-how to help bakers create desserts that feel impressive without being overly complicated.
Refuel, relax, or pop into the networking rooms to mingle
We’re all together here – back-to-back sessions you won’t mant to miss
You can’t sit in two classes at the same time – but you can catch all two instructors together right after. This live panel is your chance to ask anything on baking or decorating (not just about their classes), connect with the experts whose sessions you missed, and get unfiltered answers straight from the source.
We’re all together here – back-to-back sessions you won’t mant to miss
Decorating Day kicks off now! Get the key instructions for the day and snag prizes before the decorating magic begins.
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Caramel can feel intimidating, but once you understand what is happening in the pot, it becomes much easier to control. In this hands-on class, Sheldon Taylor will break down the basics of caramel so you can make it with more confidence and fewer panicked moments at the stove.
You’ll learn the difference between wet and dry caramel, how caramel changes depending on temperature and added ingredients, and what separates pourable sauces from chewy or hard candy textures. Sheldon will also cover common mistakes, troubleshooting tips, and the dos and don’ts that help you safely and successfully work with caramel at home.
This class is perfect for bakers who want to understand caramel from the ground up and use it in cakes, fillings, candies, chocolate bars, and other desserts.
Sheldon Taylor-Timothy is a baker, cake artist, and chocolate bar creator whose baking journey began as an artistic outlet and grew into bold, creative work on the national stage. He has appeared on baking competition shows including Halloween Baking Championship and Great Chocolate Showdown.
Known for pushing the limits of what buttercream cakes can be and creating custom chocolate bars for all occasions, Sheldon brings a playful, fearless approach to sweets. His teaching encourages bakers to get curious, get messy, and build confidence with techniques that may feel intimidating at first.
Learn how to frost cakes with smooth sides, straight layers, and sharp top edges in this practical cake decorating class.
Emily will walk you through her full process from start to finish, including how to make her 4 Minute Buttercream, check and adjust buttercream consistency, assemble a straight cake, smooth the sides, and create clean angles at the top. You’ll also learn the tools, techniques, and troubleshooting tips that make polished buttercream cakes feel much more achievable.
This class is perfect for bakers who want their cakes to look cleaner, sharper, and more professional without overcomplicating the process.
Emily Friend is the founder of British Girl Bakes, an online cake decorating school where she helps bakers build confidence with approachable, step-by-step instruction. She has more than 12 years of cake decorating experience, including starting and running a cupcake shop in Costa Rica and managing cake shops in Los Angeles.
Since launching British Girl Bakes in 2018, Emily has created hundreds of cake decorating tutorials, videos, and courses, teaching more than 20,000 students through her online cake school. She is known for breaking professional techniques into simple, achievable steps so bakers of all skill levels can create cleaner, more polished cakes.
Learn how to make a classic French fruit tart from start to polished, bakery-worthy finish with pastry chef Molly Wilkinson. Molly will walk you through the full process, including making a crisp tart crust, preparing smooth pastry cream, filling the tart, arranging fresh fruit, and finishing it with a glossy glaze.
You’ll learn how to arrange fruit in patterns, create more natural-looking designs, group colors for impact, slice fruit for better coverage, and add height and texture for an abundant, professional finish. Molly will also share make-ahead, storage, and holding tips so your fruit tarts stay fresh and photo-ready.
This class is perfect for bakers who want to master the full process of creating elegant fruit tarts for parties, dessert tables, gifts, or special occasions, with techniques that are approachable, versatile, and impressive.
Molly Wilkinson is a pastry chef living in Versailles, France. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Molly changed careers in 2013 to follow her passion, moving to Paris to study pastry at Le Cordon Bleu.
After working in bakeries in both France and the U.S., she now teaches pastry from her 18th-century apartment and online. Molly is the author of French Pastry Made Simple, with her second cookbook coming in spring 2027. Her teaching style is all about making French pastry approachable by breaking recipes into clear steps and sharing the tips that help bakers achieve beautiful results.
Refuel, relax, or pop into the networking rooms to mingle
We’re all together here – back-to-back sessions you won’t mant to miss
You can’t sit in three classes at the same time – but you can catch all three instructors together right after. This live panel is your chance to ask anything on baking or decorating (not just about their classes), connect with the experts whose sessions you missed, and get unfiltered answers straight from the source.
Christina Tosi built Milk Bar by trusting the weird idea, chasing the nostalgic flavor, and turning grocery-store cereal, birthday cake crumbs, and cookie scraps into a dessert empire.
In this candid conversation, Christina talks through her background, her creative process, and the way she approaches baking, decorating, and building something that actually feels like you. We’ll get into the ideas behind her famous naked cakes, what it means to bake with personality, and how she keeps things playful without losing the craft. If you’ve ever wondered how to make your work more recognizable, more joyful, or more boldly your own, this conversation is for you.
Christina Tosi is the rule-breaking, two-time James Beard Award-winning chef and founder of Milk Bar, whose inventive and nostalgic treats have fueled a national dessert empire. Called “one of the most creative people” by Fast Company, Christina is a TED speaker and New York Times bestselling author of seven cookbooks. She is the host of Netflix’s Bake Squad, a judge on MasterChef, and was featured on Netflix’s Chef’s Table: Pastry. Beyond dessert, her main fuel is keeping it real, which she does weekly as she invites bakers into her home kitchen for Bake Club.
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Bring personality and polish to your cakes with handmade fondant cake toppers. In this beginner-friendly class, January will show you how to prepare and handle fondant, shape simple 3D figures, and create a bride and groom topper full of charm and expression.
You’ll learn how to build the basic forms, add facial features and outfit details, and use small finishing touches to make your toppers feel custom instead of cookie-cutter. These techniques can be adapted for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and other celebration cakes.
This class is perfect for bakers who want to start creating fondant cake toppers with confidence, character, and wow factor.
January is a cake artist, educator, and fondant specialist with more than 10 years of experience creating custom celebration cakes and cake toppers. She is known for whimsical children’s cakes, character figures, and detailed 2D and 3D fondant work that brings personality and storytelling to cakes.
Her cake decorating journey began after she ordered a scuba-themed cake for her husband and noticed the small fondant diver on top. Instead of feeling intimidated, she saw the sculpted figure and thought, “Fondant is basically edible Play-Doh. I can learn this.” That moment sparked a decade of hands-on practice, custom cakes, and edible artistry.
Today, January shares her fondant techniques with a social audience of nearly 200,000 through educational content, tutorials, and workshops. Her teaching style is approachable and encouraging, helping home bakers and hobby decorators learn how to shape, detail, and create handmade cake toppers with confidence.
Learn how to decorate sugar cookies with royal icing in this beginner-friendly class sponsored by LorAnn Oils.
Before class, you’ll bake Lauren’s favorite sugar cookie recipe so your cookies are ready to decorate live. Lauren will share helpful baking pointers during class, including tips for mixing, rolling, cutting, and baking cookies with smooth, consistent results, but the main focus will be decorating.
You’ll learn how to make royal icing from scratch, color it for a cohesive cookie set, adjust icing consistencies for outlining and flooding, fill cookies cleanly, add simple details, and troubleshoot common beginner mistakes. Along the way, Lauren will show you how to make the decorating process feel approachable, organized, and much less intimidating.
This class is perfect for beginners who want to learn the full royal icing decorating process and leave with techniques they can use again and again.
Lauren Jacobs is the owner of The Cheerful Baker and a former elementary art teacher who has combined her passion for teaching with her love of cookie decorating. She is known for approachable, encouraging instruction that helps decorators build confidence without overcomplicating the process.
Lauren has been featured on Food Network’s Christmas Cookie Challenge and has taught at CookieCon, Bake from Scratch retreats, and decorating events across the country. Through her subscription boxes, online classes, and digital cookie cutter club, she has helped thousands of cookie decorators learn stress-free techniques for creating cookies they’re proud to share.
In this hands-on class, Emerlie will show you how to combine cake, modeling chocolate, candy melts, and edible finishing techniques to create an eye-catching Halloween dessert that looks like a creepy ice cream sundae.
You’ll learn how to create realistic ice cream texture with modeling chocolate, use candy melts for clean decorative elements, add realistic drips and dimensional details, and paint a hyper-realistic edible eyeball with lifelike color, veins, and a glossy finish.
Along the way, Emerlie will share how she approaches edible illusion design, including how to think through texture, proportion, color, and finishing details so multiple edible mediums come together in one cohesive showpiece.
This is a fast-paced class that is best for decorators with some experience. Basic comfort working with candy melts and fondant or modeling chocolate is recommended, and students should be comfortable following multiple decorating steps in real time.
This class is perfect for cake decorators and sugar artists who want to explore hyper-realistic cake design, edible sculpting, and showpiece techniques.
Emerlie Ann Miller is a multi-award-winning sugar artist, pastry chef, international Food Network champion, traveling instructor, and the creator of Neo Sugar Rush. Specializing in gravity-defying cakes, hyper-realistic edible creations, and immersive edible props, she is known for transforming cake, chocolate, sugar, and isomalt into unforgettable works of edible art.
Emerlie has appeared on multiple Food Network competition shows, including Santa’s Baking Blizzard, Holiday Wars, The Big Bake, Halloween Wars, and Halloween Wars All-Stars, bringing imaginative stories to life across cake, chocolate, sugar, isomalt, and pastry.
She teaches cake artists and sugar enthusiasts through online courses, in-person workshops, and live demonstrations.and also hosts the Haute Sugar Collective podcast, where she shares conversations and insights from the world of pastry, sugar art, and creative entrepreneurship.
Refuel, relax, or pop into the networking rooms to mingle
We’re all together here – back-to-back sessions you won’t mant to miss
You can’t sit in three classes at the same time – but you can catch all three instructors together right after. This live panel is your chance to ask anything on baking or decorating (not just about their classes), connect with the experts whose sessions you missed, and get unfiltered answers straight from the source.
Natural color can be beautiful, but bakers often have questions about how it behaves in real decorating projects. In this quick sponsor demo, cake designer Dessiree Salaverria of SugarDreams, featured on Netflix’s Is It Cake? and an American Cake Awards finalist, will show how she uses Roxy & Rich natural colorants to create vibrant, refined color on a tiered wedding-style cake.
In this short demo, you’ll get a practical look at working with Roxy & Rich colors in cake decorating, have a chance to ask questions live, and see natural color options for wedding cakes, celebration cakes, and polished cake designs.
Attend live for a chance to win one of several Roxy & Rich prizes, including their Natural Fat-Dispersible Collection, Pearl Lustre Dust Collection, Pearl Sparkle Dust Collection, and Buttercream Whitener.
Applications open live during The Bake Fest for the next Certified Journey Decorator Bootcamp, a 12-week online program created by The Bake Fest in partnership with the Retail Bakers of America.
During this session, you’ll learn how the certification program works, who it’s designed for, what skills are covered, and how the bootcamp helps decorators prepare for RBA’s Certified Journey Decorator exam from home. You’ll also have a chance to ask questions live so you can decide if this is the right next step for you.
Enrollment is capped at 25 decorators so participants can get focused support throughout the program. If certification has been on your mind, this is the moment to learn more and apply. Spots are limited, and we expect this cohort to fill quickly once applications open.
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In this decorating class, Anna will show you how to transform simple cookie bases into sculpted fall elements like veined leaves, mushrooms, flowers, chestnuts, and forest details using royal icing, edible colors, airbrushing, and texture techniques.
You’ll learn how to build realistic dimension with royal icing, create natural color transitions on fall leaves, pipe textured flowers, add depth and shine to mushrooms and chestnuts, and use edible dusts and airbrushing to bring the whole design to life. Anna will also show you how to combine the individual cookie pieces into a cohesive edible bouquet that feels layered, organic, and full of movement.
This class is ideal for cookie decorators who want to move beyond flat designs and learn how to create realistic texture, depth, and nature-inspired details. All levels are welcome, though basic comfort with royal icing and piping bags will be helpful.
Anna Oliinyk is an award-winning Ukrainian cookie artist, instructor, founder of Sunday Cookers Cookie Studio, and incoming owner of Cookie Connection, currently based in Portland, Oregon. What began in 2015 as decorating Christmas cookies for her children grew into a distinctive cookie art style known for sculptural dimension, realistic texture, edible painting, and nature-inspired details.
Anna’s cookies often look more like miniature edible sculptures than traditional decorated cookies. She specializes in building depth and movement with royal icing, wafer paper, edible colors, airbrushing, and hand-painted details, with a teaching style that helps decorators understand how to layer techniques for more realistic results.
Her work has been featured on Food Network’s Holiday Wars, in American Cake Decorating Magazine, through Cookie Connection’s Watch-Learn-Create series, and at major cookie events across the U.S. Through Sunday Cookers, Anna teaches decorators how to turn cookies into detailed, dimensional works of edible art.
Learn how to create Sorcha Hannah’s signature dark vintage cake style in this hands-on decorating class. Known for moody color palettes, dramatic piping, and fantasy-inspired cakes, Sorcha will walk you through the techniques behind her romantic, gothic approach to vintage cake design.
In this class, you’ll learn how to color a meringue-based buttercream with gel color and an immersion blender for a deep, saturated finish. Sorcha will show you how to work with dark buttercream, pipe layered vintage borders, create clean drop strings, and add basic and realistic buttercream flowers using a variety of piping tips. She’ll also share practical tips for temperature control so you can stage a more detailed buttercream design efficiently.
This class is best for cake decorators with some experience. Participants should be comfortable baking, filling, stacking, and crumb coating a cake, making or working with meringue-based buttercream, and doing basic piping. It’s perfect for decorators who want to move beyond soft pastels and learn how to create dramatic, vintage-inspired cakes with depth, texture, and attitude.
Sorcha Hannah is a Portland-based cake artist and the owner of Cascadia Kitchen, a custom wedding cake bakery known for fantasy-themed cakes, moody color palettes, and dark romantic designs. Cascadia Kitchen has become a Pacific Northwest favorite for nerdy, gothic, and macabre celebration cakes.
With more than 17 years of professional bakery experience, including five years as a small business owner, Sorcha is known for her versatility, technical skill, and ability to work across styles and materials. Her bakery is especially recognized for dark vintage cakes featuring dramatic piping, real dagger toppers, piped florals, fondant details, and wafer paper elements. She is also a photographer, podcast host, and social media creator who shares educational and behind-the-scenes content with her audience.
Refuel, relax, or pop into the networking rooms to mingle
We’re all together here – back-to-back sessions you won’t mant to miss
You can’t sit in two classes at the same time – but you can catch all two instructors together right after. This live panel is your chance to ask anything on baking or decorating (not just about their classes), connect with the experts whose sessions you missed, and get unfiltered answers straight from the source.
Two days in October was never the whole plan. The Bake Fest founder Stefani Pollack sits down for a short session on what’s coming next and why this community isn’t going quiet the second the event wraps.
Stef will share early updates, take real questions, and give the first look at new ways to stay connected, keep learning, and keep the momentum going long after the last session ends.
If you’ve ever wished The Bake Fest lasted more than one weekend a year, this is the session for you!
Refuel, relax, or pop into the networking rooms to mingle
We’re all together here – back-to-back sessions you won’t mant to miss
In this keynote, Mackenzie shares her journey from competing on a national baking stage to building a nonprofit rooted in her Samoan heritage. Along the way, she explores a truth every baker understands: baking is never just baking. It is culture, memory, identity, service, and connection.
Her story is grounded in tautua, a Samoan value of service through giving. That spirit shapes the way she bakes, teaches, gathers people, and shares recipes.
If you’ve ever felt that what you bake carries more than ingredients, this keynote will remind you why the work matters. It is about what we preserve, what we pass down, and who we bring to the table.
Mackenzie is a Great American Baking Show winner, first-generation American Samoan, mother of three, and the founder of Pasifika Culinary Project.
Through her baking, community work, and online presence at @mackenziebakesitout, she celebrates Pacific Islander food traditions and the stories behind them. Her work brings together family, heritage, education, and service, with a focus on preserving traditions for the next generation.
End The Bake Fest with a bang – big prize giveaways, event highlights, and the closing announcements you won’t want to miss.
