Monica Jacks
Monica Jacks took the long way to her finding her career. A graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago, she followed her husband to New Jersey, Bermuda and Oklahoma for his job and raised her children. She has always had an intense love of food and a particular awe of pastry. She finally decided on a career in Pastry Arts and attended the Pastry Arts Program at Platt College in Moore, Oklahoma and found that she had a knack for chocolate work. She competed at the Pastry Live Student Chocolate Competition in 2012 finishing as runner up. She is currently Pastry Chef at Coco Flow Chocolate Cafe in Oklahoma City and a member of the Coco Flow Studio, a custom design and teaching studio within Coco Flow.
Katharina Craine
Katharina’s Cakes
Katharina Craine began her pastry journey by learning at the feet of her grandmother in small town Germany. Surrounded by proficient bakers, she quickly developed a love for cakes and a very discerning set of taste buds.
After moving to Atlanta in her pre-teens, Katharina began sharing these old recipes with others, and eventually decided to pursue pastry as a career. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Le Cordon Bleu Atlanta and moved halfway across the country to intern with Chef Bronwen Weber of Frosted Art Bakery in Dallas, TX. It was there that she truly fell in love with cake decorating, and she stayed at Frosted Art as a cake artist well past her internship.
Katharina eventually returned to Atlanta, where she honed her skills at some of the best bakeries and restaurants in the South. She branched out on her own to open Katharina’s Cakes–a custom cake shop serving the Atlanta area–in late 2011.
Ever-evolving in her craft, Katharina is always looking for new and innovative ways to combine her unique design aesthetic with classic flavors and pastry techniques. Her work has been showcased in various bridal magazines and on television, but most importantly at special events all across Atlanta.
To see more of Katharina’s work, visit http://www.katharinascakes.com
Dawn Davis
Dawn Bakes Cakes
I have been decorating cakes since the mid 80’s. It all began after taking a Wilton cake decorating class and got hooked. I specialize in buttercream cakes for all occasions. I am a self-taught cake designer. I started making cakes not only for my family but for most of my friends and their families. I love what I do and I love seeing my client’s enjoyment over something I have created for them. It’s not “just a cake” it’s a work of art.
Shelley DeLisle
Bliss
Shelley has taken a non-traditional route to the sugar arts world. After graduating from Chaminade University in Honolulu, Hawaii, with a BA in Computer Science, and from Roosevelt University with a BGS in Business, Shelley spent 15 years in the corporate world working for EDS, a computer software services company. After juggling a career, marriage, and a young child, Shelley chose to leave the corporate world and focus on raising her young daughter.
During this 10-year hiatus from earning a paycheck, Shelley developed a love for cake decorating. She honed her decorating skills during this time by making cakes for friends and family, and by taking professional classes with leading industry cake artists Nicholas Lodge, Rebecca Sudderby, and Lauren Kitchens.
Shelley’s business experiences, and her love of sugar arts, provided her the foundation to open Bliss in March of 2010. Located on the beautiful McDonough, Georgia, town square, Shelley and her team specialize in creating wedding, and other special event cakes, with an artistic flair. Their elegant and often whimsical styles break tradition to bring bright colors and unique shapes to their delicious works of art. The shop features a full bakery, in addition to sugar art classes, and a full range of cake and candy making supplies for sale to the public.
‘Opening a business in this crazy economy has been the most difficult, yet rewarding experience of my life. I fondly refer to Bliss as my expensive mid-life crisis. I am so fortunate to love what I do, and I love the crazy women who have joined me on this journey!
Bliss
20 Macon Street
McDonough, GA 30253
www.McDonoughBliss.com
678-272-6222
Valentin Garcia
Bleeding Heart Bakery
Vinny’s tough upbringing taught him that, if he wanted to make it, he just had to do it. He’s been a butcher, a truck driver, a saucier. He’s a musician, a carpenter, an artist, and a dad. He built the first Bleeding Heart Bakery by hand, and he’s been responsible for the artwork and aesthetics of each of our bakeries ever since.
Vinny has worked with food for most of his adult life. But his true ascent began when he was hired as a catering driver for Wolfgang Puck—he was mistaken for a cook and put on the line. His skills were quickly noticed, and Vinny’s hands-on gourmet schooling grew and grew. In 2005, he opened the first Bleeding Heart Bakery with Michelle, his wife.
Today, Vinny’s the man behind all of Bleeding Heart Bakery’s visionary cake masterpieces. As with his many other skills, he’s entirely self-taught. He started by shaping fondant into little skulls and zombies, and moved on to sculpting entire cakes into the larger-than-life masterpieces that have made Bleeding Heart Bakery famous.
You can usually find Vinny performing his impressive feats of cake at our Belmont location. When he’s not doing that, he’s probably fixing something around the bakery. And if he’s not there at all, watch for him dominating cake and pastry competitions across the United States.
Christine Johns-Harris
Not A Crumb! Exquisite Cakes
Christine Johns-Harris is the owner, head cook and bottle washer at Not a Crumb! Exquisite Cakes. Not a Crumb! Exquisite Cakes is a bespoke cakeshop that specializes in cakes out of the box taste and design! A self-described Cakeist (cake artist and pastry perfectionist), Christine’s early training came from baking cakes with her mother, and memories of fantastic birthday cakes, but all the rest comes from her vivid imagination, and extremely colorful dreams.
A graduate of both Syracuse University and Columbia University, Christine is a former special education teacher, whose first love is children. Along the way, she discovered a passion for creating edible works of art, and the joy in living vicariously through the happy moments of others.
Christine has been making cakes for the past ten years, and enjoys the challenge that comes from never making the same cake twice!
Kathleen D Miliotis
Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse
Atlanta native Kathleen Miliotis has over 10 years of experience and has brought an extensive wealth of knowledge to the kitchen at Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse. As the executive pastry chef, she is responsible for overseeing the entire production of pastries and desserts, including creation and execution, recipe and menu creation, supervising, training, managing the pastry staff, and community involvement.
Miliotis began working in her mother’s catering service at the age of thirteen. In 1996, she traveled to Providence, Rhode Island to attend Johnson & Wales University to study culinary arts and has since been an avid lover of pastries. In 2001, she made her way back to Atlanta to study under Roy Yamaguchi, an Asian fusion pastry chef, allowing her to fuel her imagination and expand her creativity in the pastry world. In 2003, Miliotis relocated to New Jersey to join owner Russell Stern to open Harvest Bistro & Bar team as a pastry chef. During her time there, Miliotis received national recognition for her work, including The New York Times naming Miliotis as “a rising star, her French dessert so venerable they belong in the Louvre”, and has had the honor of baking for such organizations as Share Our Strength, Chocolate! For Cystic Fibrosis and at The James Beard House.
After moving back to Atlanta in 2006, Miliotis began working for Pano Karatossos and the Buckhead Life Group at Pano and Paul’s for three years. She continued her career at Baker’s Man with pastry chef and owner Mark Brikman, whose bakery has been compared as North Alpharetta’s version of “Ace of Cakes”. Miliotis is currently creating her beautiful pastries and desserts at Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse located in Buckhead, and continues to impress diners and enthusiasts alike with her delicious creations.
Miliotis currently resides in Alpharetta. In her spare time, she enjoys golf, gardening, baking with her daughter Kora and spending time with her family.
Ramona Oskirka
Perfect Wedding Cake
Ramona grew up as the daughter of a baker. Her father owned and operated bakeries for over 60 years. She began baking and decorating, professionally, in 1976, being taught by her father in his bakery.
After she left her father’s bakery, Ramona worked for several private bakeries and a large grocery in-store bakery. During this time, she opened new stores, taught a multitude of new decorators, and helped write and design reference and procedure manuals for the company.
The job soon became a passion for cakes and a desire to venture out to find her own niche. Ramona’s creativity and desire to step out of the box led her to strive for new ideas and techniques.
“I love to take on new cake challenges as they help me continuously grow and evolve as a cake designer and artist.”
Maria Velasco
Once Upon A Cake
A Brooklyn, NY native, Maria Velasco caught the baking bug when she was 14 years old making her first pie crust and apple pie for her friends. Next came jelly rolls, cookies and cakes.
As an aspiring writer, she always had her hands in creating something. Whether it was soaps, crocheting, needlepoint, candles, or making up stories to entertain her kids her imagination never stopped. Neither did her love of baking.
Like many others, she started by taking basic cake decorating classes and later took classes from some of the most talented cake decorators in the business. She never thought that baking and decorating would become her consuming passion!!
Maria has a little bit of cake everyday. No, not just to “taste it.” To eat it!
Robyn Dochterman
Co-Owner
St. Croix Chocolate Company
http://www.StCroixChocolateCO.com
Robyn Dochterman is the owner and head chocolatier of St. Croix Chocolate Company in Minnesota.
After a successful career in journalism, Robyn learned fine chocolate techniques from internationally acclaimed chefs at the French Pastry School in Chicago, the Chocolate Academy in Chicago, and the San Francisco Baking Institute in California. She opened her own shop in 2010 and is well known in the Twin Cities area, having won many local awards.
Robyn’s commitment to local and seasonal ingredients comes naturally. She often forages edible flowers and wild fruits she learned about a child wandering the Iowa countryside. In addition to sourcing local and organic cream and butter, she uses honey from her own backyard apiary.